Stockton veteran couple joined Honor Flight to memorials in Washington D.C.

At 18-years-old Pollyanne Nakamura Johnston, now 80, enlisted in the Army Graduate Specialist Program and went on to basic training at the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) at Fort McClelland, Alabama.

She was the “first Japanese American girl to enlist in the Army from the Stockton Area,” The Stockton Record reported on July 8, 1961.

Now, many decades later after serving she and her husband Donald Richard Johnston, 83, who goes by Richard, also a veteran who served in the Navy, traveled to Washington D.C. as part of the Bay Area Honor Flight Foundation to visit the WWII Memorial and the Korean-Vietnam Memorial.

Something that they had been waiting for, more than five years, Pollyanne told The Record.

The Bay Area Honor Flight Foundation's main mission is to “Transport America's veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit those memorials dedicated to honor their service and sacrifices,” the Bay Arean Honor Flight Foundation X page (formerly Twitter) states.

The couple flew out of San Francisco International Airport on Thursday, Sept. 21 for their three-day trip to Washington D.C.

Pollyanne had applied for the trip more than five years ago, she said.

“The great thing about this is that all these veterans that go on the flight, it's all free..." Pollyanne said. “They'll put us up, their round-trip ticket, and then tour the memorial.”

In 2005, the first Honor Flight Tour happened in May of that year, the Bay Area Honor Flight Foundation website states.

“Six small planes flew out of Springfield, Ohio taking twelve World War II Veterans on a visit to the memorial in Washington, DC.,” the Honor Flight Bay Area Foundation states on their website.

The Johnstons attended an introduction in Roseville.

“They showed us videos of an actual trip, and I thought, oh, this is so amazing,” Pollyanne said. “You feel so proud that you served and it's just giving me goosebumps to know, just to see what they do for the veterans.”

'First Japanese American girl to enlist'

Pollyanne’s family lived in Stockton but during World War II her family relocated to Rohwer, Arkansas. She was born on Feb. 24, 1943, at The Rohwer War Relocation Center.

“We were living in Stockton but had to be moved to Rohwer during the war,” Pollyanne said.

Her family returned to Stockton a few years later. Pollyanne graduated from Edison High School and went on to Stockton College (now San Joaquin Delta College) for a year.

“I felt like there's more out there than just going to school here. I wanted to travel, that was part of the reason and get some education and find work and skills,” Pollyanne said. “That's why I decided to join (the Army) and my folks were all for it, they encouraged me.”

She became the "first Japanese American girl to enlist" in the Army in town. She spent three months in basic training, she said.

“I learned how to take a rifle apart and put it together and stuff like that,” she said.

During the "German crisis," she was sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas for medical corps, after signing the paperwork wrong. She had joined for three years because she would be able to choose the school she wanted.

"They sent everybody to medical school,” Pollyanne said. “So, I did not get a choice."

She was later sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky for two and a half years.

“My heart was always back here. I wanted to see if I could get a transfer to the Presidio in San Francisco,” she said.

She worked at a hospital and since she did not want to take care of patients she traveled to Louisville, Kentucky every day on the bus, an approximately 20 miles distance from Fort Knox to train for EEG also known as electroencephalogram.

After three years of serving, she came back home to Stockton. She was around 21 years old, she said.

She recalled being very shy before serving.

“It has changed me for the better," she said.

She worked with a doctor in medical transcribing and an EEG for 20 years up until her retirement, at around 62-years-old.

She may be retired but Pollyanne still keeps busy. For the past two decades, she has worked part-time selling Mary Kay and has volunteered at St. Joseph's Hospital and at church.

“The longer time goes on, the more prouder I am that I did what I did. At the time, I just went ahead and joined and did my time,” Pollyanne said. “Actually I'm the only one in my family that enlisted. I had two brothers. I have an older brother and a younger brother, that neither one served.”

Navy Sailor or cheesemaker

Richard is a Wisconsin native, born on July 26, 1940.

The son of a cheesemaker, and one of 10 siblings. He wanted something more for his life.

“Back then, when you graduated from high school, at 21 or 22, you were going into the military because of the draft," Richard said. "With Uncle Roy doing a career in the Army, that's what I was going to do."

Richard and his friend had plans to join the Marines. But after a problem, his friend decided to join the Navy and so did him, Richard said.

“Well going into the Navy was a lot better than making cheese,” Richard said.

He was just 17 years old when he enlisted. He turned 18 years old while in boot camp, he said.

“It’s just something you had to do. You had no choice. You were going into the military,” Richard said.

He went to Great Lakes for boot camp and when done he went to an electronics school, he said.

Richard re-enlisted around 1960 for 6 years under the "Selective Training and Retention (STAR) program," a newspaper clipping said.

Richard got to travel the world from Virginia to San Juan Puerto Rico and much more as he went aboard the USS Galveston out of Norfolk, Virginia.

“When you join the Navy, you see the world,” Pollyanne said.

Richard ended up in Stockton in May 1963.

“In May of 63, it was eligible for shore duty...I was getting transferred and about three weeks before I got transferred," Richard said. "They changed me to the Navy Communication Station San Francisco at Stockton, California."

After two and a half years, he was sent to the Communications Station in Guam during the Vietnam War, he said.

"The following year, would of been October of 66. I got discharged and came back to Stockton with the Department of Employment looking for a job. They called down the communication station. They said come down and I went back to work for them as a civilian. Doing the same thing," Richard said. "I ended up retiring from that and in October of 94 as a foreman electronic mechanic."

Pollyanne and Richard married on August 8, 1981.

Since he retired Richard has continued to volunteer at church with cooking, and maintenance work, and has even donated blood in the past with the Delta Blood Bank.

For Richard, the memories are a bit different than his wife’s.

For him serving “was just a job,” he said as he laughed.

But whether it was a job or not, he made a career out of it, traveled the world and inspired their grandson to continue the Navy legacy.

Their 28-year-old grandson is also serving in the Navy as a nuclear machinist, second class, in the same location Richard was in Norfolk, Virginia. He has served for the past five years.

“I think everybody should serve. I'm a firm believer in that. I believe that coming out of high school, every young boy should go into the military, gives them a chance to be on their own with some guidelines and gives them a chance to settle down," Richard said. "And a lot of people my age, that have served believe the same way. And it's good training, you can get good training. And then when you go looking for a job, the military person is going to get hired before the guy out of high school.”

Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: veterans traveling on Honor Flight