The Wagner American Legion Auxiliary Greer Unit #11 is honoring Walter Ishmael as September’s Veteran of the Month. Ishmael enlisted in the Navy in September of 1963. He was one of four from Wagner that joined the Navy at the same time. The other Navy recruits were Neil Hyde, Wendell Stewart and Dean Carda. The four attended basic training together in San Diego, CA at the Naval Training Center. For the first two years of his service, Ishmael’s job was in Aviation Structural Mechanic-Hydraulics which kept him in a land-based status. He had been stationed at the U.S. Naval Auxiliary Air Station Ream Field which is also known as the “Helicopter Capital of the World”. Ishmael decided that it was time for a change of scenery and volunteered to be on the first ship available.

The ship that Ishmael was assigned to was the USS Mt. Mckinley which was a class command ship. The ship was designed to be an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by both amphibious and landing force commanders during large-scale operations. Ishmael’s job while on the USS Mt. McKinley was as a mechanic on the admiral’s helicopter crew. Ishmael flew into Subic Bay in the Philippines where he boarded the vessel. The USS Mt. McKinley sailed to Okinawa, Japan. At the same time that Ishmael was on the USS Mt. McKinley, one of his fellow Wagner enlistees, Wendell Steward, was aboard the USS Oriskany. Unfortunately, one of the worst shipboard fires broke out on the ship when a magnesium flare was accidentally ignited claiming the lives of 40 men, one of which was Steward.

After returning to the Philippines, the USS Mt. McKinley sailed to Vietnam, where it was located eight to ten miles off of the coast. Rear Admiral John M. Lee was the flagship commander of the vessel when Ishmael was on board. The Admiral did not like to fly via helicopter, instead he would always have an Army Huey pick him up when he had to attend meetings on land in Vietnam with other top officials. In addition to being a mechanic, Ishmael would also do mail runs to Da Nang (a coastal city in Central Vietnam). After their time off the coast of Vietnam, the USS Mt. McKinley worked its way back to Okinawa, Japan and then Hong Kong, China. It took a month for Ishmael to return to the United States. He traveled on a different vessel to return to the US which was a WWII tube ship that had been converted to a class command ship. While on his way back to the US, he was part of a support helicopter squadron. Upon returning to San Diego, Ishmael was honorably discharged from duty in September of 1967 after serving his four years. Once receiving his discharge from the Navy, Ishmael then had to find his own way home, luckily, he had a car.

Ishmael had several highlights from his time in the service. This was Ishmael’s first time away from home and he wanted to see different places and travel as part of his military service. Another highlight of his military service was getting to travel to Hong Kong. There he was able to see many different sites and experience the culture of the area. One other highlight would have to be getting to meet different and interesting people that he probably would not have met had he not left South Dakota and the Midwest.

Ishmael attended Lawrence Country School, south of Wagner for his elementary education. The school was located four miles from the family farm. He then attended high school at Ravinia High School and graduated in 1963 before enlisting in the Navy that fall. Ishmael chose to enlist in the Navy because there was no way that he could have joined the family farm. He came from a family of 13 children and had watched his parents, Ralph and Viola, try to support the family with their farming; he knew that he wanted something different for himself. What really influenced Ishmael to enlist with the Navy was that his friend, Neil, was going into the Navy. One night while the four of them, Neil, Ishmael, Wendell and Dean were at Rest Haven they were all talking about the Navy and decided that they would all join up. The next morning Ishmael told his parents that he was going to enlist and would be leaving.

Once Ishmael was discharged from the Navy, he moved to Oregon and worked at a warehouse. He decided that it just was not the right fit for him, so he returned to Wagner and worked at John Deere. Ishmael and his soon to be wife, Donna Carda, had lived only a few miles from each other’s farms south of Wagner. Ishmael had been bailing for Donna’s dad and as Ishmael put it “we just kind of got together”. After the couple were married, they moved to Oklahoma where Ishmael worked as a trucking mechanic. When that shop closed, Ishmael was transferred to Liberal, KS, to run a trucking shop. The family eventually moved to New Mexico to help one of their daughter’s asthma condition and for the next 50 years lived there and operated a trucking and heavy equipment shop. The couple finally decided that it was time to move back to Wagner in order to spend time with family.

Walt and Donna have two daughters, Renae and Sai. They also have three grandsons. Renae lives in Santa Fe, NM and has two sons; Sai lives in Los Alamos, NM and has one son.

Over the years Ishmael has enjoyed hunting, fishing and wood working as his hobbies of choice. Because of living the bulk of his life in New Mexico, he enjoyed hunting elk, since there were not many deer. When it came to fishing, he usually liked to fish for trout. Ishmael has also been very active in his local communities. He has served on the Bryan Township Board, Well Coop Board (in NM), Sanitation Board (in NM), VFW and the American Legion. Ishmael first joined the VFW right out of service in 1967. He joined the American Legion while living in New Mexico and has been a member for over 30 years, transferring his membership to the Wagner American Legion Post when he moved back to the area. Ishmael enjoys working the Legion’s Labor Day stand as well as the VFW raffles and he used to help put up the flags in the park for holidays.

When asked what advice he would have for anyone not quite sure what to do after graduation, Ishmael said that joining the military is an experience that one will never forget. A person who joins the military has a tendency to grow and mature over the course of their service.

Thank you, Walt, for your service and sacrifice, and for being this month’s Veteran of the Month.