BOUNTIFUL—Veterans Day is a time to honor those who have served and are currently serving the nation to protect the freedoms all Americans enjoy. Three local men, Eric Hattabaugh, Doug White and John Olmedo are among the ranks of veterans who served their country and looked upon it as their patriotic duty.

“I was 21 and my wife and I had just gotten married,” said Doug White, Operations Specialist Second Class, who served in the Navy from 1970 to 1974. “I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I had friends who didn’t make it back from Vietnam so I thought it was my patriotic duty to go.”

White said he considered the Marines. “My wife said ‘absolutely not.’ My dad was in the Navy and told me that I could get skills that I could use later so I joined the Navy.”

Just as he was headed to bootcamp, White said he found out his wife was pregnant. “I went to the recruiter and asked if I could go back. He said ‘son you are U.S. property you can’t back out now.’ While I was at bootcamp my wife had the baby.”

Operations Specialist Doug White enlisted in the Navy in 1970. Courtesy photos

White served in the Combatant Information Center. “It was the heart of the ship,” he said. “It was dark with red lights flashing like you saw in the movie ‘Hunt for Red October.’ We operated along the whole coast 1,000 miles off shore. We would try to blow up ammunition sites.”

One night the Chinese tried to deliver supplies to the Vietnamese on a barge, he said. “We blew up the barge. It got real quiet for a long time then there was a huge explosion outside the Center. The Vietnamese had fired. I wouldn’t be here today without the armor on the ship. Shrapnel cut through the aluminum on the outside and the deck was full of shrapnel.”

White did two tours in Vietnam. “The hardest part was leaving my wife and little girl,” he said. “It had to be done. I’m proud to have served, it’s a tradition in my family.”

The sad thing was when veterans came home there was no ticker tape parade, no celebrations, said White. “They spit on them and called them baby killers.”

White had the opportunity this week to go on the Honor Flight back to Washington, D.C. “I never thought I’d get on it,” he said. “It’s so awesome to go back and see the monuments. I’ve never seen them.”

Hattabaugh is Commander of American Legion Post 79 in South Davis County and Assistant Chairman of the Bountiful Veterans Park Board. “I spent four years on active duty at Hill Air Force Base,” he said. “I was 20 years in the reserves. I was an aerospace medicine medical specialist. I was activated during Desert Storm.”

He thought he was going to Saudi Arabia but was kept at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. “I was there for four months,” he said. “I was Emergency Shift Leader mainly doing emergency treatment of injuries in the local population.”

Hattabaugh did go to Saudi Arabia and served at the Prince Sultan Air Force Base. “I was doing emergency treatment of soldiers,” he said. “There were many accidents and all kinds of injuries. Extricating people from vehicle accidents, broken backs – I was trained for all of that.”

He served in several other locations and developed close relationships with the men and women he served with. “I served all over the country and world with the Air Force and it was great serving with great people.”

Ret. Col. John Olmedo enlisted in 1984 and served in Aeromedical Evacuation. “Fixed wing evacuation is movement at the next level of medical care,” he said. “Helicopters have limited distance and we could go downrange such as Germany to the U.S."

John Olmedo in Iraq. Olmedo served in Aeromedical Evacuation. Courtesy Photo

The Germany assignment for evacuation is actually the hardest, said Olmedo. “We had patients from all over that would funnel through. Kids coming in that could have been my own kids coming off the aircraft. It was difficult.”

It was a tough mission moving the wounded, he said. “It was rewarding though.”

There’s always danger in any overseas assignment, Olmedo said. “We had times where we had to shelter in place and you’d hear rockets come in. We’d go down country in Iraq and when we got back there would be holes in the side of the aircraft. That was certainly scary. But you do what you’ve got to do.”

Olmedo said the thing that stands out most are the people he served with. “The men and women are dedicated to the mission. They’re putting in long hours and willing to do it again and again.”