The simple smell of onions had Ron Sanchez craving a McDonald’s
hamburger as a young man, thousands of miles away from home, many
years ago.
The simple smell of onions had Ron Sanchez craving a McDonald’s hamburger as a young man, thousands of miles away from home, many years ago.
It left him homesick, and for good reason. Sanchez was cold, wet and hunkered down in a foxhole near an onion field on his second tour of Vietnam with the U.S. Marine Corps. They couldn’t move without the chance of dying.
When he landed in Oakland, finally home, anti-war protests were taking place. They told the soldiers stepping off the plane that they could have anything they wanted.
Most ordered steak or lobster. Sanchez ordered the McDonald’s hamburger he’d been dreaming of in that trench.
They asked him if he wanted something else, maybe something more lavish.
“I said, ‘No, there’s a meaning behind it,'” said Sanchez, now age 60.
And on Sunday, when Hollister and the rest of the country honored its veterans, it was the little memories that got – and always get – Sanchez.
He thought of that hamburger while getting ready for his Veterans of Foreign Wars chaplain and Honor Guard duties Sunday morning.
It brought a tear to his eye, remembering how life was so miserable then, that it made him hunger for McDonald’s.
Hundreds turned out Sunday to watch a Veterans Day ceremony and parade at the Veterans Memorial Building downtown. They were there to honor Sanchez and dozens of other local veterans.
Here in San Benito County, where veterans are honored on the walls of biker bars and a black prisoners of war flag flying at Hollister City Hall, there are an estimated 3,300 veterans. They’ve fought in American conflicts from World War II to the present wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some residents were out alone, others with their whole families or just with their children. Some came to pay respects. For others it was a deeply personal affair.
Ted Trujillo and his two young sons and nephew were on San Benito Street for the parade Sunday. The little boys were each carrying small American flags, waving frantically atop a sidewalk bench in front of the Veterans Memorial Building.
Trujillo’s brother, Jose Trujillo, was injured by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq, left deaf in one ear and suffering from blood clots.
The four could not be with Jose Trujillo, so the parade was their way of honoring him.
“Just remembering,” Ted Trujillo said.
George Arreola, a 41-year-old Hollister resident, was at the parade with his family to see 13-year-old George Arreola II play saxophone in the Rancho-Maze Marching Band, and to honor the veterans in attendance.
“And to show our kids to keep that tradition,” Arreola said.
Veterans seemed pleased at the turnout.
Charlie Scott, an active VFW member and Vietnam veteran, said the turnout was better than in previous years.
“It’s always nice to see people come out for it, other than the veteran community,” Scott said.
Cmdr. Jim Perales, of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hollister Post 9242, said it is important to the veterans that the public attend the ceremony and parade.
“Very few people attend Veterans Day ceremonies,” Perales told the gathering. “For what reason, we don’t know.”
Veterans stood and spoke at the ceremony – thanking the crowd for coming and explaining what it meant to be a veteran – and told of their experiences overseas.
Elaine Reyna, a San Juan Bautista resident, was age 19 when she became a medical specialist in the Korean War.
Many of the soldiers she attended to were also 19.
“I’ve never forgotten that,” Reyna said.
