Lake Elsinore Veteran Among Those Getting High School Diplomas Decades After Enlisting

Seventeen veterans of foreign wars who didn’t graduate high school will be awarded their diplomas next week under a Riverside County program that salutes men and women for answering the call of duty.

The county Office of Education will conduct its eighth “Operation Recognition” program on Nov. 12 for the benefit of veterans of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. Under the program, vets are eligible to receive their graduation certificates even though they never finished school.

The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. in the Moreno Valley Conference and Recreation Center.

Next week’s honorees include 89-year-old Joe Aviles of Beaumont, who served in both the U.S. Army and Navy. He enlisted in the latter at the outset of World War II at age 17, fighting in the Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Saratoga.

Aviles left the Navy and later enlisted in the Army when the Korean War broke out, operating a tank. The father of three children, 10 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren left school before finishing the 10th grade.

He doesn’t recommend that to today’s generation.

“They need school,” he said. “They aren’t going to learn by quitting and going to the streets and getting into bad situations.”

According to the former seaman and infantryman, there were some aspects of school he missed after going into the military.

“I used to love arithmetic. But when it came to algebra, forget it,” he said.

The other 16 county residents slated to receive diplomas are:

• Salvatore Amata of Cherry Valley, Army, Korean War
• Gerald Blokzyl of Mountain Center, Army, Korean War
• Gary Crone of Cathedral City, Navy, Vietnam War
• Manuel Espudo of Banning, Marine Corps, Korean and Vietnam wars
• Phillip Klock of Mira Loma, Navy, Korean War
• Henry LaPointe of Riverside, Army, Vietnam War
• Steven Netter of Riverside, Marine Corps, Vietnam War
• Joe Pruett of Hemet, Navy, Vietnam War
• Rudolfo Ramirez of Corona, Army, Korean War
• Adam Ruelas of Beaumont, Army, Vietnam War
• Juan Serrano of Riverside, Marine Corps, Vietnam War
• Muhammed Shamsid-Deen of Riverside, Navy, Vietnam War
• T.L. Shelton of Riverside, Army, World War II
• Philip Walker of Lake Elsinore, Marine Corps, Vietnam War
• Robert Wible of Murrieta, Air Force, Korean War
• George Zankl of Moreno Valley, Navy, Korean and Vietnam wars

Operation Recognition was initiated in 2007. Since then, about 250 veterans who reside in Riverside County have received diplomas.

The program is based on California Education Code 51440, which permits the retroactive granting of graduation certificates to honorably discharged or retired veterans who served while the country was on a war footing. All they have to do is sign up, according to county officials.

— By City News Service.