Hermosa Beach Planning commission chairperson Pete Hoffman keeps his father’s World War II service cap on a hat rack inside the front door of his home.
“The cap’s there to remind me, my kids and my grand kids of the sacrifices my dad made. He landed in Normandy on D Day and went through a horrific time. Then he came home to Long Beach on the Queen Mary, became a doctor and delivered 8,000 baby boomer babies. He never talked about his wartime experiences.”
Hoffman told the story of his dad’s service cap last Friday at the 22nd Annual Veteran’s Day Commemoration and Candlelight Ceremony. The service was held at sundown at the Veteran’s Memorial Sundial.
Hoffman said he was uncomfortable being the keynote speaker because, though he served in the Army during the Vietnam war, he didn’t fight in Vietnam. He was assigned to Oakland, where his job was to stamp the papers of the soldiers going to Vietnam.
He reconciled himself to speaking, he said, because he felt he could represent “the average guy who raised his hand when duty called.”
“My dad and I didn’t have a Beaver and Ward relationship. We didn’t talk a lot. But when I got my draft notice in 1971, as the war was winding down, I asked him what I should I do.
“He was a Republican who quoted John F. Kennedy. He said, “‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your country.’ Do the right thing. You’ll never regret it.”
Hoffman spent a year at Fort Hood in the MP Corp as a bomb-sniffing dog handler. Then he was ordered to Vietnam. But when he got to Oakland to be processed overseas, a Sgt. Major told him, ‘You’re staying here.”
Hoffman expressed concern that the average American is becoming detached from its service men and women. He noted that 15 percent of the U.S. population served in World War II, but today just one percent serve in the military.
There are 1,300 veterans living in Hermosa Beach, he said.
He said he hoped the annual Candlelight Veterans Memorial would
remind residents of the debt they owe to their veterans. ER
