Departing Wednesday: First Honor Flight in California for Native American veterans

Oct. 31—Bakersfield resident Sal Sanchez Hernandez carried an M60 machine gun for the U.S. Army in 1977.

On Tuesday, Hernandez carried a traditional Native American medicine bag around his neck and wore a cap with the words "Native Veteran."

Early Wednesday morning, Hernandez, now 66, will be among more than 35 military veterans scheduled to fly out of Bakersfield on Honor Flight Kern County's 48th flight to the nation's capital.

Only this time is different: All of the vets aboard the flight will be Native Americans, descendants of those peoples who hunted, fished, raised children, lived and died on these lands for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans.

"I thought, 'It would be a dream come true if I could get to go,'" Hernandez said of Honor Flight Kern County, a nonprofit organization that has flown more than 2,000 vets to see the nation's memorials.

But he never thought he would be in line for such an honor.

"But here, we get an opportunity to go on the first Native American veterans Honor Flight in California," he said. "I thought it is an honor to go."

The trip has been in the works for more than two years, but the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues caused delays in the plans.

Yet on Wednesday, the first Honor Flight Kern County organized specifically for Native American veterans leaves and is scheduled to return at 10 p.m. Friday.

"Several years ago the new National Native American Veterans Memorial was slated to be dedicated on Veterans Day," said Lili Marsh, who founded Honor Flight Kern County more than a decade ago. "However due to COVID that dedication was delayed and this significant and beautiful memorial was finally dedicated in November 2022.

"To our knowledge, this will be only the third exclusively Native American Honor Flight in the country," Marsh said.

Like Hernandez, Bridget Escalera was a graduate of Foothill High School. She joined up and served in the U.S. Army "right out of high school," from August 1977 to April 1980.

A member of the Chalon-Esselen tribe, Escalera, 64, is set to be aboard Honor Flight Kern County's flight No. 48.

She said she had heard from friends who served as volunteers with Honor Flight who described it as "an experience of a lifetime."

When she was approached and invited to join this latest flight, she was not about to say no.

"My husband and I took our own Honor Flight, actually, before he passed away, so I got to see almost everything we're going to see — but this will be different."

The National Native American Veterans Memorial had not yet been built, and the two veterans are looking forward to experiencing the national memorial dedicated to honoring the military service of Native Americans, a proud history that is not well known among most Americans.

"Native Americans serve in the United States' Armed Forces at five times the national average," according to the USO, or United Service Organizations.

"For a community that has persevered through decades of challenges, Native Americans — also called American Indians — have remained steadfast in their defense of the United States as members of the Armed Forces for centuries. And while Native Americans have a long and complicated history of serving in the U.S. military, it is also a proud one."

Angel Galvez, CEO of the Bakersfield American Indian Health Project, has partnered with Honor Flight Kern County for years in a local effort to organize a flight to Washington, D.C., for military veterans of Native American descent.

It took longer than he thought it would, but now that they have succeeded, and the plane is scheduled to depart from Meadows Field, Galvez is thrilled.

He's also going as a guardian, the red-shirted volunteers who are assigned to watch over the vets.

Galvez sees it as a way to honor the culture and the contribution Native Americans have made and continue to make while serving in the nation's armed forces.

This special Honor Flight not only will pay tribute to the thousands of Native Americans who have fought and died while wearing the uniform of an American soldier or Marine, in a way it also honors the warriors who stood firm in defense of their native land, and handed down that tradition to their descendants in the modern world.

"It was in the interests of our native veteran community to say, 'I want to know more about this,'" Galvez said.

"We had a few people come from across the state of California," he said, "folks from the farthest south to the farthest north, to make this trip.

"It's once in a lifetime."

Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353.