DIANNEHARDISTY.COM

HINA'S DREAM: Raise public awareness of sickle cell disease

Dianne Hardisty — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 22:45:00 GMT

Hina Patel, right, is shown in Bakersfield Memorial Hospital with her mother, Bhavana, shortly before her death.

Hina Patel lost her battle with sickle cell disease, but her family has not given up the fight.

Bhavana and Sanjay Patel, Hina’s parents, are forming a support group in their daughter’s honor and held a Sickle Cell Awareness Fair on Saturday, Sept. 18, in the parking lot in front of their pharmacy, Hina’s Homecare and Compounding Pharmacy.

No doubt the huge turnout for the event would have pleased the young woman, who died in May of complications from the disease.

The Patels estimate about 250 people in Kern County, Calif., have the inherited blood disorder, sickle cell disease. They hope to alert “at risk” people to the need to receive genetic counseling before they conceive a child. People whose ancestry is from Asia, Africa, South America and Mediterranean countries are “at risk” for carrying genes that allow sickle cell disease to be passed to their children.

And while couples may not realize they are “at risk,” families and health care providers also may not recognize the symptoms of the disease, resulting in treatment delays and increased pain for victims, said Bhavana Patel.

Creation of an awareness campaign and network of support was Hina’s dream. It was the project that earned Hina the Girl Scout’s coveted “Gold Award” when she was a Stockdale High School student. Her family is committed to making Hina’s dream come true.

The 20-year-old died on May 5 after developing complications from a bone marrow transplant performed in hopes of curing Hina’s disease.

Just three months earlier, Hina was the keynote speaker during Houchin Community Blood Bank’s recognition dinner in Bakersfield for blood platelet donors.

“Sometimes I ask, ‘Why me?’ But I know everyone faces bumps in the road,” Hina told donors that night. “I try to keep positive mentally and have hope. I have faith in God. ... Finding my match for platelets is difficult. Houchin has been able to do that.”

Hina received more than 80 units of platelets from Houchin donors during her years-long struggle with sickle cell disease and in the aftermath of the unsuccessful bone marrow transplant.

As her condition deteriorated and she was confined to an isolation room at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, just weeks before her death, Hina agreed to an interview to talk about her disease, her struggle and the need for better services. Hina was later transferred to the hospital at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she died.

More than 600 people attended Hina’s services at Hillcrest Memorial Park. They included her high school, Bakersfield College and Girl Scout friends, as well as the many people she touched and inspired. Accepted into the University of Pacific’s pharmacy program, she hoped her condition would improve to allow her to attend.

Although both are pharmacists, with extensive knowledge of medicine, Sanjay and Bhavana Patel were stunned when a routine blood test revealed their baby girl, Hina, was born with sickle cell disease.

“I thought there had to be a mistake,” Bhavana recalled during an earlier interview. “We thought that was mostly an African American disease.”

But the young couple, who are both of Indian descent, learned that the hereditary disease also is found in people from many regions. Neither Sanjay, nor Bhavana knew they carried genes that could combine to inflict their baby with a potentially deadly disease.

“At first we were in denial,” Bhavana said, explaining that Hina appeared and behaved as a healthy, normal baby. But as Hina approached her first birthday, she had her first “pain crisis.” Her feet and hands swelled up. “It was very painful. All she did was cry. Then we knew it was real.”

As the years passed and Hina’s condition worsened, Sanjay and Bhavana began investigating the option of a bone marrow transplant for their daughter. Her severe and repeated pain episodes and the availability of a matching donor qualified her for the procedure, which was performed in 2008.

Despite her medical struggles, Hina did well in school. New medicines provided periods when her pain was controlled and she could join in activities with classmates. As a teenager, she excelled in her classes. But medical complications in her senior year required her to finish her studies at home.

Improving the quality of care and support for people with sickle cell disease was Hina’s reason for wanting to become a pharmacist, her mother said. Hina’s dream was to help the hundreds of people in Bakersfield who are suffering in silence.

A version of this story written by Bakersfield freelance writer Dianne Hardisty appeared in The Bakersfield Californian on Sept. 16, 2010.

Bakersfield Pastor Answers Call To Serve

Dianne Hardisty — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:54:00 GMT

Gregory Horn promoted to rear admiral, named Deputy Chief of Naval Chaplains
Daughter Jessica Horn ordained minister, joins Naval Chaplain Corps

Gregory Horn poses with his daughter, Jessica, and wife, Katherine at Jessica's 2008 graduation from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.

Every church needs a pastor. But what if the need is greater somewhere else?

The congregation of Westminster Presbyterian Church has confronted that question for years. When Minister Gregory C. Horn, whose sense of patriotism, long-held admiration for the Navy and desire to help defend his country, was called to minister to the spiritual needs of Americans fighting overseas, his Bakersfield church had a unified response: Go. They need you.

Those years of sacrifice are being honored Sunday when Chief of Naval Chaplains, Rear Adm. Mark L. Tidd, will travel to Bakersfield to thank Horn's family and church members for the 22 years they have supported their pastor and for their continued support after he is promoted next month to rear admiral in ceremonies conducted at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He will become the Deputy Chief of Naval Chaplains (Reserve Matters) on Oct. 7 and discharge his new duties for three years, until his retirement in 2013.

When the newly minted Presbyterian minister became a U.S. Navy Reserve chaplain in 1988, the Pasadena native had just been named pastor at Westminster two years before.

Horn, who entered the Navy as a reserve lieutenant, knew it would be tricky to add two weeks of annual active military duty and monthly reserve drills to his already busy schedule, which included running a growing church and helping his wife, Katherine, raise their two young children -- daughter Jessica and son Evans.

But the balancing act became more than "tricky" after 2001, when terrorists attacked New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11. It became a sacrifice for Horn, his family and the members of Westminster Presbyterian Church, who pulled together to support the U.S. military, including one of their own.

Horn's two-week annual military obligation stretched into months away from his family and church, as he was given increasing responsibilities and rose in rank. He was called to full-time military duty -- in response to the 2001 terrorists' attacks and again in 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq and he was named wing chaplain at the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar, near San Diego.

His responsibilities at Miramar included managing casualty assistance programs and supporting military families as the dead and injured returned from the Iraqi battle field. He somberly recalls the many military funerals he conducted during his nearly a year of active duty.

Horn, 57, who credits the support of his family and church members for his ability to serve America as a Navy chaplain, has been assigned diverse tours of duty aboard ships, at the Naval Hospital in San Diego, with a naval mobile construction battalion, submarine fleet, armored reconnaissance battalion, and various Marine regiments.

Horn expects his increased responsibilities will require him to be away from his Bakersfield church occasionally, but said church members and staff generously step forward and pick up his duties when he is gone.

Following Dad's example

Sunday also will be the time another member of the Horn family steps forward to serve. The pastor's 28-year-old daughter, Jessica, a graduate of West High School and California State University, Northridge, will be ordained a Presbyterian minister. Like her father, Jessica completed graduate studies at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.

And on Oct. 7, when her father is named to his new command post at the Pentagon, the Rev. Jessica Horn will be by his side. Horn's first official act as a rear admiral will be to swear his daughter into the Navy as a lieutenant (junior grade) in the Chaplain Corps. Gregory Horn predicts it will be "a bright moment for Navy chaplain recruiting, Westminster Presbyterian and Bakersfield."

"Growing up as the daughter of a pastor, who is also a Navy chaplain, I have always dreamed that I, too, could pursue a career with such a positive influence on individuals and on our country as a whole," said Jessica Horn, who now works as a resource teacher in a Compton school district.

"I am especially energized by the opportunity to serve servicemen and servicewomen of diverse faith backgrounds," she said.

Horn's wife, Katherine, concedes merging family, church and Navy life has been "a roller coaster." The demands of a rear admiral's wife will likely greatly increase the length of her "to do" list, she joked.

Adm. Tidd is scheduled to speak at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Jessica Horn will be ordained at 1:30 p.m. The church is located at 2080 Stine Road.

This story written by Dianne Hardisty appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Sept. 18, 2010.

BC Professor Takes Entry Level 'Real World' Job

Dianne Hardisty — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:48:00 GMT

Steve Hageman says his job is to make his students’ dreams come true. For most of Hageman’s Bakersfield College students, the dream is to become a craftsman, whose skills are coveted by businesses. It is to have a rewarding, creative, steady job.

Making those dreams come true is why Hageman, a woodworking professor, packed his bags last summer and headed to Montana.

“I kept seeing ‘help wanted’ signs wherever I went,” Hageman recalled during a recent interview. But when he asked business owners about their vacancies, he was repeatedly told they could not find skilled workers.

What were businesses looking for? Was he preparing his students for “real jobs?” Hageman decided to find out.

Hageman, who holds numerous college degrees and educational certificates, and whose impressive career includes being an administrator in area school districts, writing a special education textbook and working as an oilfield engineer, downplayed his resume and called a man he had met while fishing earlier in Montana. He asked Ray Plante to give him a summer job as an entry level cabinetmaker.

Plante recalled during a telephone interview that Hageman told him he was a teacher in California and needed practical experience for a course he would be teaching.

When Hageman pushed his last student through his classroom door in mid-May, he pointed his pickup truck toward Montana, where his parents, Ed and Carol Hageman, are living in retirement. Plante, a 62-year-old Vietnam War veteran, put Hageman to work at Plante Custom Cabinets in Ennis, Mont.

“I became just Steve Hageman in Montana. No one knew me. I lived with my parents. I was a 54-year-old guy in an entry level job. It was a humbling experience,” Hageman said, recalling that “I almost got fired the first week.”

Hageman’s first assignment was to build face frames for cabinets. He was given no instructions. He was just pointed to his work area and left on his own.

As the days of the first week went by, Hageman said Plante seemed to grow more angry. He found no fault with Hageman’s work. Instead, he was angry that Hageman’s near perfect results were achieved in a “different” way; not Plante’s way.

“When he came up to me on Friday, he was red in the face and was sweating,” Hageman recalled. “He told me, ‘Steve, this is my business. It has taken me 30 years to get this far. You are very good at what you do, but I want you to do it my way.’”

Hageman asked Plante if he was going to fire him. He said the shop owner admitted he was thinking about it.

Plante now says Hageman wasn’t in danger of being fired. He contends he was just offering constructive criticism. “I was just showing him other ways to do things. He took it personal. But we got past that.”

“Creative people, like Ray, are sometimes tough people to work for. You can’t understand all the stress a person who owns a business can be under,” said Hageman.

The first week rolled into a second. During the day, Hageman built cabinets. At night in his parents’ home, he tapped out his observations on a laptop computer. The college professor was writing a manual for his students that included the procedures Plante so prized, as well as tips for satisfying a demanding boss.

Hageman wrote in his manual, “Ray states that one of the elements of his craft that gets him up in the morning and into his cabinet shop is the reward at the end of a long day to not only see a project come together, but to witness the smiles on the faces of his clients when the job has been completed.”

A friendship developed between the men. They took breaks to go fly fishing. They ate lunch with Plante’s wife, Bernice, who manages the shop’s office. And when work was finished on Friday afternoons, the two men would share a couple of cold beers and talk about the week.

Eight Fridays after he was hired, Hageman gave notice that he was quitting and told Plante he needed to show him something important. He gave him a copy of the manual he had been writing about his experience working for Plante. He asked the shop owner for permission to share it with his students.

“He was surprised, and then he got choked up and had to leave,” Hageman recalled. “When he returned a few minutes later, he hardly had words. But he managed to say that he would be honored.”

“I couldn’t believe the things that he wrote,” Plante recalled. “Some of it was so personal. I hope I showed him some things that helped.”

Plante said he would gladly hire Hageman back. He said he was sorry to see him leave because he was a big help. “He worked 110 percent.”

Hageman used his Plante Custom Cabinets manual in last year’s BC woodworking classes. And he plans to do so again this year.

“I know that Ray and his crew wish you well in your career pathway,” Hageman writes as he introduces his students to the more technical parts of the manual. “Take the knowledge that you gain and expand upon it. Demand the most of yourself and respect the craft. Remember that the tradition continues with you.”

This written story by Dianne Hardisty appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian.

Whittling Away Your Time

Dianne Hardisty — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:39:00 GMT

When Keith Turner retired from his job as a lineman for the telephone company, he thought retirement was going to be a blast. It wasn’t. Turner had nothing to do.

Steve Hageman’s long-time buddy was bored and depressed. Turner’s wife was concerned. She called the Bakersfield College woodworking professor for help.

Hageman and Turner go way back. Fresh out of Fresno State University with a degree in industrial arts, Hageman landed his first teaching job in Le Grand. To earn extra money, he taught an evening woodworking course at Merced College. Turner was in his class.

The men struck up a friendship and began carving duck hunting decoys. They became obsessive over their carvings, spending hours making the decoys look “real.” Hageman moved on to teaching jobs in Bakersfield. But the men stayed in touch.

Hageman continued to carve, but less intensively and mostly creating tiny Santa’s for relaxation. Turner stopped carving altogether.

When Hageman received the distress signal from Keith’s wife, he packed a knife, a couple of basic tools, a leather finger protector and a block of bass wood into a cigar box and drove to Merced County to see his friend.

“Keith, I want you to carve this and I am going to come back and check on your progress,” Hageman remembers telling Keith.

Turner resisted at first, but eventually picked up the knife and started to scrape away at the block. That was six years ago. He now makes little characters for gifts for his family, primarily for his granddaughter.

Hageman is inviting Turner to speak to students enrolled in his four-session “Introduction to Woodcarving” class that he is giving through the Levan Institute for Lifelong Learning at Bakersfield College in October.

“Anyone can carve,” Hageman said, offering his wife, Tracy, as an example. Tracy took up carving about a year ago when she encountered a health problem. Hageman and his wife carve and talk, finding it a good way to relax, have fun and socialize. His wife’s project, a pelican, is nearly complete.

“We will sit in the backyard or at Starbucks and catch up on her day and my day,” he said.

Hageman assumes most of his Levan Institute students will be looking for a hobby or an outlet to relax.

“Carving gives you one-on-one time, without something else interfering. As you are talking away about life, you will see the conversation reflected in your carving. You can set it aside for a while, and then pick it up again.

“Carving is a tangible object of a good time,” Hageman said.

This story written by Dianne Hardisty appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian.

INFOBOX

What: Introduction to Woodcarving

Where: Levan Institute for Lifelong Learning

Bakersfield College

When: Fridays, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Oct. 8, 15, 22 and 29, 2010

Cost: $50 (includes fee and materials)

Enroll: Go online to www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/levaninstitute/

Beating Bakersfield’s heat and ‘global warming’ with $1 draft beer at Ethel’s

Dianne Hardisty — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:34:00 GMT

John Hayes is served lunch at Ethel’s Old Corral in Bakersfield, Calif., by waitress Lauren Evans.

The joke around dusty, dry, hot Bakersfield, Calif., is that folks should be grateful that it’s a “dry heat,” not like other muggy places in the U.S. “Yes, it might be hot today, but it’s a dry heat!”

Well, from the grumbling heard around town on most summer days, this Chamber of Commerce spin on Bakersfield’s “heat” isn’t working. Hot is hot, and folks aren’t happy. That is, unless you hang out at Ethel’s Old Corral on Alfred Harrell Highway, in the northeast part of the city.

You won’t find a lot of moaning and groaning at Ethel’s when the temperatures climb over the triple digit mark. In fact, you will find people cheering the thermometer in hopes it climbs over 105 degrees.

That’s because the homey restaurant and bar drops the price of its draft beer as the temperatures climb. When they reach 100 degrees, draft beer drop to $2 a glass. When they hit 105 degrees, the price drops to $1 a glass. The regular price of draft beer at Ethel’s runs from $2.50 to $3 a glass.

“It gives people a reason to be glad it’s hot, rather that just complain about it,” said Natalie Mears, the restaurant’s owner. As Bakersfield’s “dry heat” got hotter in July, Mears cooked up her “beat global warming” idea. She has made good on her offer at least six times this summer, including last week, when temperatures crested the 110 degree mark. While they have dipped again this weekend, if history tells us anything, there will be another heat wave before Bakersfield settles into the late fall and winter cold fog.

“One dollar beer tones down the heat. It’s not so much a drudgery,” said Mears, who has owned Ethel’s for about six years. She bought the business from the estate of Ethel Beeson, who ran it for about four decades until she died.

“It’s a fun thing,” said John Hayes, a lifelong Bakersfield resident, who retired from Chevron. Hayes stops by Ethel’s for lunch nearly every day. Hayes and other “regulars” said they have been eating at the restaurant since they were kids with their parents.

Ethel’s is northeast Bakersfield’s equivalent to “Cheers,” the television bar, where regulars hang out and everyone seems to know your name. But even “newcomers,” like Mike and Loretta Schield, who moved to Bakersfield in 1996, find Ethel’s enduring.

“It’s one of Loretta’s and my very favorite places,” Mike wrote in a recent e-mail alerting customers to the $1 a beer offer. “On a Sunday afternoon (and lots of other times, too) you will find Lexuses, Caddies, horses, tall pickups, bikes and lots of us commoners’ cars in the parking lot. [There are] lots of regulars and old-timers and young folks and kids, too.

“The place has a lot atmosphere and a lot of history,” he wrote. “You can just feel it when the country music cranks up.”

The discount beer offer is based on the readings from a simple thermometer hung on Ethel’s patio.

“There’s nothing fancy at Ethel’s,” Mears said.

Author: A version of this story by freelance writer Dianne Hardisty appeared in The Bakersfield Californian .

Fiscal Crisis Inquiry Commission takes hearing to Bakersfield, Calif., in the heart of the foreclosure crisis

Dianne Hardisty — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:43:00 GMT

Phil Angelides, left, and Bill Thomas at recent FCIC hearing.

The pain just doesn’t go away as the nation’s economic problems continue to devastate millions of American families. Members of the Fiscal Crisis Inquiry Commission will listen to real people’s pain on Sept. 7, when they hold their first “field hearing” in Bakersfield, Calif., in the heart of the foreclosure crisis.

The 10-member bipartisan commission was created by Congress last year to examine the causes of the financial meltdown. Its chairman is former California Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat, and retired Bakersfield Rep. Bill Thomas, a Republican.

Wall Street financial giants, economists and federal regulators have been hauled before the commission during a series of often contentious hearings held this year in Washington, D.C., and New York. Commissioners have a Dec. 15 deadline to present their findings to Congress.

Commissioners announced Thursday that they intend to take their inquiry on the road, with their first stop being in Bakersfield, Thomas’ home town. Three additional field hearings have been scheduled: Las Vegas, Nev., on Sept. 8; Miami, Fla., on Sept. 21; and Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 23. Sacramento is chairman Angelides’ home town.

The focus of the hearings and list of witnesses who will be called has not yet been announced. However, the hearings are intended to highlight how actions on Wall Street have affected life on Main Street. Plummeting property values, a persistently high unemployment rate, record-setting foreclosures and community bank failures are effects that are evident on the streets of Bakersfield, the city that will host the commission’s first field hearing.

The one-day hearing is expected to be filled with testimony from witnesses representing the financial and real estate industries. People who are victims of the financial crisis also will have an opportunity to testify and present written comment.

This article written by Dianne Hardisty appeared first on www,Examiner.com.

Good old boys and Cesar Chavez farm worker advocates line lunch counter at Keene, Calif., café

Dianne Hardisty — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:47:00 GMT

Kirk Roper, left, and Jackie Palik of Tehachapi prepare to leave the Keene Cafe.

A peeling, weather-beaten sign that shouts “Keene…Eat…Deli…Gas” looms over what at first glance appears to be a small wooden shack.

If you have ever traveled on Highway 58, between Bakersfield and Tehachapi , you have seen the sign and likely just kept driving.

But mountain residents and travelers adventurous enough to pull off the highway at Woodford-Tehachapi Road have discovered the shack-looking Keene Café is a treasure trove of good food and local lore.

“It’s our country club,” said Margaret Miller, a wiry woman who doesn’t stand still long enough to answer a reporter’s questions. She can’t. She’s too busy taking orders and slinging food onto tables, while cooks Huberto Chavez and Christian Gutierrez are flipping “loop burgers” in the kitchen.

Miller has worked at the restaurant for only a year. But a 20-year resident of the area, she has been a long-time customer.

The Keene café is where everyone comes to eat, talk and just hang out, said Miller, who lives in Hart Flat. “I love it here.”

There’s the “men’s club,” a group of local “guys” who eat together every week at the cafe. A framed, yellowing Tehachapi News story hanging from the café’s wall also calls the group the “Swat Team,” for the men’s commitment to swatting flies at the diner.

And then there is the “women’s club,” a group of local women who call the Keene café their home away from home once a week.

Located next to a Kern CountyFire Department station and Helitak pad, the café is the weekly gathering place for area firefighters.

Open seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Keene café is a magnet for just about anyone who passes by. Customers arrive on horses and Hogs, in sedans and pickup trucks. The point is: They just keep coming, with the big attraction being breakfast, which is served until 11 a.m. on weekdays and until noon on weekends.

“Their omelets are awesome,” said customer Jackie Palik, on a recent Saturday, as she and her friend, Kirk Roper, were climbing onto their motorcycles and getting ready to head back to their Tehachapi homes.

With the Union Pacific railroad tracks and famed “Tehachapi Loop ” in spittin’ distance from the café, the menu’s trademark hamburger is called a “loop burger.” Customers also can find fancy entrees, like healthy salads, or gourmet dishes, like mushroom burgers, as well as hearty steaks and Mexican food on the menu.

Pies made by a Tehachapi baker using local fruit -- one pie with the intriguing name of Tehachaberry -- are encased in old-fashioned glass displays on the café’s counter. Miller insists that before customers can leave the café, they must cap off their meal with a slice of fresh pie.

Palik and Roper have been eating at the restaurant for around 15 years.

“It’s friendly and old-fashioned,” said Palik.

Roper, who also likes that it is “small and out of the way,” said he looks forward to the barbecues held on the patio out back in the summers.

Miller said she has had customers tell her that they have driven by the café for 20 years without stopping. And when they finally decide to stop, they become “regulars.”

One of the café’s regulars was the late Cesar Chavez . In 1971, Chavez’s farm workers organization bought 187 acres up the road from the café. The land was formerly Kern County’s tuberculosis sanitarium. It is now the National Chavez Center and the headquarters for the United Farm Workers union.

Monica Parra, conference and event manager for the National Chavez Center, recalled that Chavez and the café’s owner, Ruby Wood, would tease each other. She would ask Chavez when he was going to sell his land to her, and he would ask Wood when she was going to sell her café to him.

Chavez died suddenly at the age of 66 in 1993. A few years later, Wood’s health failed. As she planned to move to Oregon to be near family, Parra said she contacted the Chavez family. Remembering Chavez’s interest in buying the restaurant, she gave the UFW the right of first refusal before she put the café up for sale.

The UFW took Wood up on her offer, becoming the owners and operators of a refuge for bikers, good old boys and country folk.

“It’s a wonderful, cozy diner,” said Parra. “There are people who are in there every day. We have tweaked the menu and added some Mexican food, but we have kept it the way it has been for years.”

This article written by Dianne Hardisty was published first in The Bakersfield Californian on July 25, 2010.

U.S. AT WAR: Bakersfield ‘Cooks’ Witness Importance of Navy in Trip to Bahrain

Dianne Hardisty — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 20:02:00 GMT

Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, left, and Vice Adm. Mark Fox answer reporters' questions at July 5 change of command in Bahrain

A news junkie, I consider myself at least moderately informed about international events and the nation’s interests in such “hot spots” as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and east Africa. But reading news stories and watching television reports just isn’t the same as putting your boots on the ground.

Next year will be the 10^th anniversary of the start of U.S. fighting in Afghanistan. It has become our nation’s most protracted war, now exceeding the duration of the Vietnam War. And June was its most deadly month. No one is predicting when the fight will be “over” and what “over” really means.

Earlier this month, I traveled with the Bakersfield-based Cooks From The Valley to Bahrain, the headquarters of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and Fifth Fleet, which oversees Middle East operations.

Headed by attorney Tom Anton, about 60 volunteers, most from Bakersfield, flew to the Persian Gulf to barbecue steaks for the troops on July 4. Since the terrorists’ attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the “cooks” have barbecued around 130,000 juicy Harris Ranch steaks to show their appreciation for U.S. soldiers and sailors on ships, on domestic and overseas bases, and in hospitals.

This month’s trip sent volunteer cook teams and steaks to four locations – to the Naval Support Activity, Bahrain; Shaikh Isa Air Base, Bahrain; aboard the amphibious assault carrier USS Nassau at sea; and at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, near the Somalia border.

It was hot – real hot. Temperatures were around 120 degrees, with the humidity pushing the heat index maybe 20 degrees above that.

But that’s not what I will remember most about the trip. Maybe it’s what I whined about the most. The most memorable thing was the realization that we are – really – at war. And our nation’s finest are out there fighting it so we can go about our business at home not giving it much thought.

Anton hits the nail on the head when he observes that our troops are sacrificing every day so that we can live as though it was Sept. 10, 2001 – so that we can forget terrorists attacked New York and the Pentagon, and forget more terrorists want to inflict more harm today. Regardless of Americans’ legitimate disagreements over sending U.S. troops to the Middle East, thousands of our young military men and women are serving in some of the world’s most dangerous places.

To say thanks for that, Anton has enlisted “cooks,” who buy thousands of pounds of fresh steaks and haul them around the world, grilling up a taste of home for those who may sometimes feel forgotten.

In addition to being a U.S. Navy headquarters, Bahrain is a “support activity,” where ships – aircraft carriers, mine sweepers, submarines, etc. – come into port for supplies and other “activities.” A few miles away at Shaikh Isa Air Base, additional multi-national forces, including U.S. units, are stationed.

Both Isa and NSA Bahrain are on the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia, giving them “strategic locations” to support troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, to keep a watch over Somali pirates who infest the waters off the East African coast and to counter terrorism throughout the region.

America doesn’t flaunt its presence in Bahrain. No big Stars and Stripes fly overhead; military uniforms are not worn into town; and high security is posted at gates, with bomb-sniffing dogs checking vehicles that enter.

Homesick sailors and soldiers are anxious to talk to visitors – especially those grilling 12-ounce steaks. But their talk is general. The “when and where” of their activities are mostly secret.

About 1,000 miles away, on July 4, Gen. David Petraeus took command of the war in Afghanistan. In a roar of controversy, Petraeus replaced Gen. Stanley McCrystal, who resigned after publication of an embarrassing Rolling Stones magazine article.

The next day in Bahrain, less media attention was given to another important change of command. Vice Admiral Mark Fox relieved Vice Admiral William Gortney as commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. Gortney will become director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In prepared remarks and to reporters after the ceremony, which the Bakersfield cooks attended, Fox stressed the importance of the Navy’s presence in the Gulf. He pointed out that the “amazing growth” of the global economy makes protecting trade routes and stabilizing the region a priority for all nations. He likened the sea lanes to the body’s life-giving circulatory system and Navy forces to “doctors” who must keep the veins from clotting.

Gortney noted in an earlier interview that the U.S. reliance on a global economy requires the free movement of oil, natural gas and goods. “Buying and maintaining a Navy is vital to our interests.”

As evidence that U.S. allies in the Gulf have “come closer together, growing stronger together,” Gortney told reporters after the ceremony, “We are working very closely with the Iraqi Navy and within two years we will be ready to turn over the entire mission of protecting their two offshore oil terminals to them.”

Fox addressed the threat posed by Iran, which is located less than 300 miles away and directly across from Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. Saber-rattling Iran has been sanctioned by the U.N. over its nuclear program.

“I certainly do not expect a clash. We are not in the business of looking for trouble, but if trouble appears, we know how to deal with it,” he told reporters.

After spending a few days with my boots on the ground in Bahrain, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Navy knows how to deal with trouble. I’ve seen some of the might they will bring to the fight.

Dianne Hardisty retired as The Californian’s editorial page editor last year. She and her husband, John Hardisty , traveled with the “Cooks from the Valley” to Bahrain this month. This opinion article appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Sunday, July 18, 2010.

TUNNY ORTALI: Shell Beach Restaurateur Takes 'Busman's Holiday' to Bahrain with 'Cooks from the Valley'

Dianne Hardisty — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:01:00 GMT

McLintocks co-founder Tunny Ortali barbecues in Bahrain with Cmdr. Steven G. Fuselier.

Talk about taking a “busman’s holiday.” Tunny Ortali, co-founder of the renowned McLintocks restaurant in Shell Beach, Calif., traveled this month with the “Cooks from the Valley,” a group of about 60 volunteer cooks.

Ortali and the other cooks hauled about 16,000 pounds of Harris Ranch steaks to U.S. troops in the Middle East and served a mouth-watering July 4 barbecue feast to homesick soldiers, sailors and marines to show their appreciation for the sacrifices the military is making to keep the U.S. and world safe.

Ortali’s McLintocks and its companion,Steamers of Pismo , are well known to many of the deployed service members and their families. The Central Coast steak and fish food restaurants are favorite destinations for military families stationed at Lemoore Naval Air Station, in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Lemoore is the home base of many Navy aviation squadrons assigned to carriers and flying missions over Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat zones.

Both Vice Adm. Mark Fox, the incoming leader of the Navy’s Central Command and 5^th Fleet in Bahrain, and Vice Adm. William Gortney, the man Fox replaced during a change of command on July 5, were stationed at Lemoore Naval Air Station.

“I was incredibly honored to be part of the Cooks from the Valley Middle East tour,” Tunny wrote after his return. “My heart is filled with pride and patriotism when I tell everyone I know what we accomplished and what the mission entailed.”

Ortali, whose restaurants are renowned for their steak dinners, gave special attention to preparing and barbecuing the tri-tip steak for Gortney and Fox at the barbecue in Bahrain. Other locations cooks visited to serve the July 4 feast included Shaikh Isa Air Base, also in Bahrain; aboard the amphibious assault carrier USS Nassau at sea; and at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, near the Somalia border.

Headed by attorney Tom Anton, the Bakersfield-based volunteer “cooks” have barbecued around 130,000 juicy Harris Ranch steaks since the terrorists’ attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, to show their appreciation for U.S. soldiers and sailors on ships, on domestic and overseas bases, and in hospitals. The cooks buy the steaks and pay for their expenses out of their own pockets.

Author Dianne Hardisty, a freelance writer in Bakersfield, and her husband, John Hardisty , accompanied the "Cooks from the Valley" to Bahrain.

KATRINA 5 YEARS LATER: Bakersfield Generosity Still Felt by Victims

Dianne Hardisty — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 05:58:00 GMT

Little is left of a Biloxi, Miss., beach front after Hurricane Katrina.

August marks the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the killer storm that buried New Orleans in the water that broke loose from the city’s levees and whose horrific winds ground away entire communities on the Gulf Coast.

The catastrophe touched residents in Bakersfield, Calif., who opened their wallets and hearts to help people in devastated Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Many contributed money and time through organized groups. Others went to the region, rolling up their sleeves and lending a hand.

Following on this blog are four stories of Bakersfield people and groups who responded in very personal ways. In no way do they represent a comprehensive picture of all the contributions Bakersfield people made. But they do demonstrate the generous and caring nature of our community.

Last spring I traveled to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to report on how our efforts turned out.
I found tough, resilient people still coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Profusely grateful for the help and still amazed by Bakersfield’s generosity, they conceded they had not yet fully recovered, but they were making progress. They could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Just a few days after I returned to Bakersfield, British Petroleum’s oil drilling platform Deepwater Horizon exploded, gushing out millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

As Ray Cox, the Wal-Mart manager in Waveland, Miss., told me: “The light at the end of the tunnel has gone from a bright flashlight to a penlight. But, we’ll be OK. It’s more aggravating than anything. It slows you down.”

Hurricane Katrina blew away Cox’s Wal-Mart five years ago. Like his customers, Cox also was left homeless by Katrina.

But they were persevering. The rubble had been cleared away. Cox’s Wal-Mart was rebuilt. Businesses were returning. Tourism, which depends primarily on fishing, had rekindled.

That was before the BP explosion, before the tar balls and oil-drenched animals started washing ashore, and before fishing prohibitions chased away the tourists.

Ellie Vasilopoulos in Biloxi, Miss., told me that she is so sickened by this latest disaster she and her neighbors have stopped watching television news reports. They are just too darn depressing.

And she noted there are similarities in the BP and Katrina disasters: The responses to both lacked coordination. “No one knows who’s in charge.”

“It’s a mess,” she said recently. “We are counting the days when they cap the well and clean up the oil.”

A version of this July 10, 2010 article written by Dianne Hardisty was one in a series that was printed in The Bakersfield Californian about the results of Bakersfield volunteer projects to help rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Dianne Hardisty and her husband, John Hardisty, traveled to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in April 2010 to report on progress.

KATRINA 5 YEARS LATER: NPR show compelled Bakersfield retiree to help New Orleans family

Dianne Hardisty — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 05:23:00 GMT

Carolyn and Michael Mattios are shown in front of their New Orleans home

Michael and Carolyn Mattios and their teenage sons fought their way through streets clogged with cars and fear to escape the floodwaters filling New Orleans. They made their way to Baton Rouge, leaving behind their modest Deers Street home on the border of the Ninth Ward.

A room in a crime-infested motel became the family's "temporary" home. But the stay they hoped would be for only a few days stretched into months, as New Orleans' recovery efforts were overwhelmed by the devastation.

A dishwasher, whose job was washed away by Hurricane Katrina, Michael would sneak back into the barricaded city, camping out in the wreckage of his house to keep looters away.

Carolyn remained at the motel, struggling to keep her family together and her sons in school. The family's predicament grew desperate until one day she was interviewed by a reporter from "All Things Considered," a National Public Radio show .

Asked how she was doing, Carolyn didn't hold back. Insurance money was slow in coming and meager when it arrived. The contractors they hired to fix their house did shoddy work. She doubted they would ever be able to go home.

Thousands of miles away in Bakersfield , Jack Hendrix, a retired East Bakersfield High School counselor and part-time home repairman, listened to Carolyn's sad story. He decided to help.

Hendrix tracked down the Mattios family through the NPR reporter. He recruited Chris Thomas, a young friend with construction skills, and headed to New Orleans. They camped out in a budget hotel, working for six weeks to repair the Mattios' house. And when they were done, Hendrix rented a truck, drove to Baton Rouge and moved the family back into their home.

"We were so surprised," said Carolyn during a recent interview in New Orleans. "After the show, people started sending money. It wasn't a lot of money -- $20 here and there. But it really helped."

"We got more help from people -- perfect strangers -- than we got from the government. We were touched by God. They didn't know us from the man on the moon, but they opened up their hearts and sent us their hard-earned money. They were the heroes," said Michael.

"But Jack was the only one that showed up to help. He pretty much finished fixing up our house," said Michael, 74, who now is retired. Carolyn just turned 62 and is receiving disability retirement. Their two sons are now attending college. The family keeps in touch with Jack, whom they call their friend.

"They are such sweet people," Hendrix said.

Pulling away from the Mattios' home, I waved to workers from Samaritan Purse Disaster Relief who were repairing a house. But mostly the neighborhood was quiet. The families that once made Deers Street a lively community were gone, likely not to come back. There were no children playing in the streets or behind the fences that lined yards.

On the top step of a porch of a nearby house sat Joan Lewis. Before Katrina, she worked for the telephone company. She's retired now. She returned to the wreckage of her home and fixed it up. It's freshly painted. The lawn that stretches to the street is manicured. But the buildings on both sides are abandoned, boarded up and marked with the all-too-common spray painted warnings of the Katrina rescue crews.

"Does that bother you?" I asked her, getting out of my car to chat.

"Yes, it's forever reminding me," she said. "It reminds me of the power of God. But he didn't do this to be hateful. It also reminds me of the goodness of people; all those people who came to help.

"Now it's time to move forward."

This July 10, 2010 article written by Dianne Hardisty is one in a series that was printed in The Bakersfield Californian about the results of Bakersfield volunteer projects to help rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Dianne Hardisty and her husband, John Hardisty, traveled to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in April 2010 to report on progress.

KATRINA 5 YEARS LATER: Bakersfield woman's family rebuilds lives

Dianne Hardisty — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:35:00 GMT

Dawn Lusich stands with her boss Ray Cox at Wal-Mart

Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on the Gulf Coast when Sandra Boswell in Bakersfield, Calif., received a telephone call from her family in Mississippi.

“It’s a 5,” she heard.

At first she thought they were talking about the time of day. Then it hit her. They were talking about the strength of the storm. Katrina was a category 5 hurricane.

“Oh, my God. You all have to leave,” she pleaded.

Boswell knew the power of a category 5 hurricane. She rode out category 5 Hurricane Camille in 1969 and vowed “never again. It was terrifying.”

Boswell, a registered nurse who oversees the intensive care units at Catholic Healthcare West’s Bakersfield hospitals, has many brothers and sisters still living along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Her husband, Bill, also has family around Bay St. Louis.

The couple moved to Bakersfield in the 1980s so Bill could work in the oil industry. Bakersfield “grew on them” and they never moved “back home” to Mississippi.

When Katrina landed, Boswell’s brother and two of her sisters “lost everything.” Her sister Dawn Lusich, whose family had a catfish farm and oyster beds, stubbornly stayed to protect their business.

But as the churning ocean filled Lusich’s neighborhood with water, she and her two young children fled with neighbors into her home’s attic. Rain-filled winds ripped the roof from the house. Flood waters caused it to drift from its foundation.

When Katrina moved on and calm returned to the devastated city, Lusich, her children and neighbors were rescued from the attic rooftop.

“She thought she was going to die,” Sandra said.

Nearly 2,000 miles away, Sandra and Bill Boswell began collecting clothing and supplies for their families and friends in Mississippi. With the help of a Bakersfield television station, a collection point was set up. When the first tractor-trailer rig was filled, it headed east. Just a few days later, a second 18-wheeler was stuffed with supplies and sent to the Gulf.

“Sandra called and said Billie was on his way,” recalled Lusich. “When he arrived, I could not believe the outpouring of help from Bakersfield.”

A few weeks later, Sandra traveled to Mississippi. “We had no Gulf. It was all gone. It was horrible. All I did was cry,” she said.

The Wal-Mart in nearby Waveland, where Lusich worked in the customer service department, also was gone. Manager Ray Cox told his bosses at corporate headquarters in Arkansas that the place “looked like Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped.”

Company trucks began arriving with water, non-perishable food and supplies. For the next 30 days, Wal-Mart gave away — free of charge — life-sustaining medications. Tents housed a temporary Wal-Mart.

Meanwhile, Cox, who also lost his home, dispatched staff to check on employees. Using payroll records, they fanned out to account for everyone. Sadly, Edgar Bane, a worker on the loading dock, and his family of four had died in the storm.

Every employee received a $1,000 check to get them through the early days of the crisis. And when they were able to return to work, jobs were waiting for them. Eleven months after the storm, Waveland’s new Wal-Mart opened for business.

“Like everyone else around here, we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps,” Cox said. “It’s made us stronger.”

Lusich credits Cox and Wal-Mart for getting her through the hard times.

She and most of her neighbors have rebuilt their homes. Lusich’s house is not as grand as her old one.

“Katrina took a lot from me, but it also gave me a lot,” Lusich said, explaining she is closer to her family and friends today.

I called Cox a few days ago to see how his community was fairing after the BP platform explosion. Many of his customers and neighbors are fishermen. They now work for BP. Instead of pulling shrimp and fish from the nearby waters, they are laying boom and sucking out oil.

“We’re persevering and just waiting to see what happens,” he said.

KATRINA 5 YEARS LATER: Biloxi people still live in trailers from Bakersfield

Dianne Hardisty — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:50:00 GMT

David Brand, left, stands with David Davis

Biloxi , Miss., insurance man David Brand was wading through water and rubble when he heard a "goofy" idea coming out of Bakersfield, Calif.

About the same time, Pastor Steve Truitt, contractor Jim Childress and a handful of Calvary Bible Church members were looking across an Arvin farm field cooking up the "goofy" idea.

The field Childress had recently purchased was littered with 50 weather-beaten, dilapidated trailer homes left over from the Bracero farm worker program of the 1940s and 1950s.

Childress' idea was to donate the trailers to his church, have volunteers fix them up, then haul the trailers back to the Gulf Coast to provide temporary housing for people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.

Truitt recalled thinking: "This is something much bigger than my church."

And the project became just that -- much bigger. Other churches joined in, as did businesses. Rotary Clubs opened their wallets and provided manpower.

A loose-knit chain of church, charity and Rotary connections spread word of the project to Biloxi, where Katrina had ground away historic antebellum mansions, modest cottages, restaurants, businesses and resorts. First Presbyterian Church, where Brand was an elder, was the only church facing the water that was left standing.

"This place was decimated," Brand recalled recently. While the media attention was focused on New Orleans, which was flooded when the city's levees broke, the center of hurricane damage was the Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama coast.

"Ninety percent of my friends lost everything," said Ellie Vasilopoulos, a retired Kessler Air Force Base civilian employee. "You would ask someone, 'How did you do?'" She choked back tears when she recalled a friend told her, "Not even a teacup was left."

The damage was so widespread along the Gulf Coast that Brand, Vasilopoulos and their neighbors figured they were pretty much on their own.

"We didn't feel abandoned. We just never expected anyone to help," said Brand. "Why in the world would they come?"

But they did come. And "they" who came quickest were not from the government.

"I don't know what we would have done without all the help from all the communities," said Vasilopoulos, praising church and civic groups for their fast response.

Clothing and supplies arrived by the truckload. Quick-witted Brand became the "go-to guy" in Biloxi in the early days. So it's not surprising that he received the idea -- which he admits sounded pretty goofy -- to fix up and haul 50 aging trailer homes from Bakersfield to Biloxi.

Back in Bakersfield, church member Steve Ogden allowed a field behind his company, Concrete Cutting Unlimited on Well Tech Way in Rosedale, to be used as a staging area, where trailers would be repaired by teams of volunteers. It costs about $4,000 to repair and outfit each trailer. Many of the building supplies and furnishings were donated.

"The first month or two, we didn't know how we were going to pay the bills," Truitt recalled. But then money and donated supplies started pouring in. Area Rotary clubs did a lot of the fundraising. In Biloxi, Brand hustled money to transport the trailers.

Over the next eight months, as a handful of trailers would be fixed up, Bakersfield volunteers would hitch them to trucks and caravan them to Biloxi. They were given to families that had fallen through "FEMA's cracks" -- they did not qualify for federal housing or were on long waiting lists.

Families were handed the keys and told to pass the trailers along to another family when they no longer needed them. Today you can still find some of these trailers scattered about Biloxi's modest neighborhoods.

David Davis invited me into his trailer. The unit now rests on a permanent foundation and sports a front porch. It has been passed along by several owners. Like earlier residents, Davis is mighty grateful to folks in Bakersfield for their efforts.

"God gave us wisdom beyond all measure," said Truitt, adding that a lasting benefit of the trailer project was to bring area churches, groups and individuals together. Some of the same people who helped restore the trailers now work on similar missionary projects together.

As Biloxi rounded the corner into its fifth year since Katrina, Vasilopoulos boasted of the community's comeback. Storm wreckage had been cleared away. Homes and businesses were being rebuilt. Work on a museum, which Biloxi leaders hope will become a tourist attraction, neared completion. Things were definitely looking up.

But that was before British Petroleum's Horizon drilling rig exploded. While the oil has not yet hit the city's beaches, residents can smell it. Gloomy media reports and fishing restrictions keep tourists away.

"It's impacting everyone," Vasilopoulos said. "We are all very concerned. That's all we seem to talk about. And we are scared to death that a hurricane is going to come along and push the oil towards us."

KATRINA 5 YEARS LATER: Bakersfield woman helps rebuild Lakeshore

Dianne Hardisty — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:24:00 GMT

Pamala McCarver recalls that she was crying so hard she could barely see through her car's windshield as she drove along the back roads around Bay St. Louis, Miss.

It was six weeks after Hurricane Katrina ripped thousands of homes from their foundations and tossed many into the ocean. A registered nurse at San Joaquin Hospital in Bakersfield, McCarver traveled to the Gulf Coast to visit her Kern County fire captain husband, Randy, who was helping with recovery efforts.

"It was like the entire San Fernando Valley had been wiped out," McCarver recalled recently. "There were spots of hope, but mostly devastation."

McCarver turned down Lakeshore Road and stopped. The steeple of a church rested on the ground, pointing toward the heavens. Next to it was a tarp-like tent where food and clothing was being distributed.

She approached a young couple, telling them how sorry she was that the church was destroyed.

Pastor Don A. Elbourne Jr. and his wife, Courtney, assured her the Lakeshore Baptist Church had not been destroyed. Hurricane Katrina only destroyed its building.

That exchange kindled a friendship between McCarver and the Elbournes that continues today. Over the past five years, McCarver and her friends in Bakersfield have sent supplies and gifts to the Elbournes and their church members. Holidays are remembered. Telephone calls are exchanged. They have become family.

A new church has been built. Behind it is a distribution center where needy area residents still come for help. A food pantry and dormitories have been added. Under construction is another building, where counseling and job training will be offered.

With the help of people like Pamala McCarver, the little country church that dates back to 1911 has become Rebuild Lakeshore (www.rebuildlakeshore.com). It's a place where church groups from throughout the nation come to rebuild homes and help heal lives.

People spend a week or two, or maybe more, sleeping in dormitories at night, cooking their meals in the mess hall and toiling in the heat of the Mississippi sun as house-by-house, street-by-street, this coastal town is put back together.

"We were 'ground zero' when Katrina hit," the pastor explained when I recently visited. Only a mile from the coast, the community was left 30 feet under water. "Every home in the area was gone; more than 4,000 lost."

A poor area, where most family incomes come from the fishing or offshore oil industries, the people of Lakeshore had little to lose, and they lost even that.

The church's stubborn steeple and the tent relief city that sprouted up around initially "became a beacon of hope," Elbourne recalled. But as the weeks and months of recovery dragged on, it also became "a symbol of devastation." The church buildings, themselves, had to be rebuilt.

"We had to make ourselves a hopeful scene if we were going to be in this for the long-term," he said. "What the storm did will affect this community for generations. We are dealing with the community's psychological, as well as physical recovery."

"Some people have lived here for seven generations. Their lives and their incomes are tied to the coast," he said. "They aren't leaving."

And that makes the recent BP oil disaster and the spoiling of the fishing industry such a painful blow to this already fragile community.

When I called a few days ago, church secretary Joell Fricke reported that commercial fishing is at a standstill. The community's shrimpers are idle. The lucky ones have been hired by BP to clean up the oil.

This July 10, 2010 article written by Dianne Hardisty is one of a series that was printed in The Bakersfield Californian about the results of Bakersfield volunteer projects to help rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Dianne Hardisty and her husband, John Hardisty, traveled to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in April 2010 to report on progress.

Courtney and Don Elbourne stand in front of their church.

Bakersfield to Bahrain: Unusual 'mission' for San Diego-based squadron VR-57

Dianne Hardisty — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:41:00 GMT

Cmdr. Bill Crump, left, and Lt. Kendra Kaufman are shown in the cockpit of their Navy C-40A on the way back to the U.S. from Bahrain.

Just hours after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti in January, Bill Crump and his San Diego-based fleet logistics support squadron were in the air, flying non-stop airlifts of lifesaving supplies and personnel into the region.

It wasn’t the first international emergency Crump, the squadron’s commanding officer, has responded to. But it dramatically demonstrated the readiness and capabilities of his Navy reserve squadron, which has repeatedly won military commendations.

Crump, 44, who grew up in Cleveland, Tenn., said he was “extremely proud of the men and women of VR-57, who stepped up at a moment’s notice to make [the Haiti] mission happen.”

The long list of humanitarian missions the squadron has flown also includes airlifting New Orleans refugees from the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and hauling rescue supplies and crews to the stricken Gulf Coast in its C-40A, which is a variation of a Boeing 737 that can be quickly reconfigured to carry cargo, passengers, or both.

While Crump describes his squadron’s primary mission as “bringing the fighter to the fight,” the crews’ readiness, the long-range reach of its aircraft and the unit’s flexibility provide frequent and unique challenges.

“You call, we’ll be there,” Crump recently told a reporter.

“There” may be airlifting warriors and weapons to hot spots in the Middle East, or “there” may be delivering the Harlem Globetrotters to a show on a military base. Legislators, diplomats and foreign officers have sat in the jump seat behind Crump in the cockpit as he has flown around the world.

But as he prepares to hand over command of VR-57 next month, Crump said one of his most unusual and gratifying missions was airlifting 15,000 pounds of fresh steak and the 58 volunteer cooks, mostly from the Bakersfield,Calif., to barbecues for troops in the Middle East on July 4.

The loosely-knit group that calls itself the “Cooks from the Valley” was airlifted with top-of-the-line Harris Ranch steaks to Bahrain, where teams of “cooks” were dispatched to four locations -- the Naval Support Activity (Bahrain), Shaikh Isa Air Base ( Bahrain), aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau in the Persian Gulf and Camp Lemonier , a remote base in Djibouti, Africa, where troops stand watch over Somali pirates.

In temperatures pushed beyond the recorded 120 degrees by the humidity and heat from barbecue grills, the valley cooks served up a dinner that included a 12-ounce gourmet steak and all the traditional July 4 side dishes to homesick sailors, soldiers and marines. Volunteers paid for the steaks and their expenses out of their own pockets.

The idea behind the barbecues began two decades ago. Bakersfield attorney Tom Anton began boxing up prime grade steaks, hauling them to ships and barbecuing them for sailors as expressions of his appreciation for the military.

But after the terrorists’ attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, Anton’s barbecues grew into “Cooks from the Valley,” who travel like an invading army, barbecuing steaks by the thousands to weary troops, some deployed to the most dangerous and isolated regions of the world.

“We buy the steak, cook them and clean up,” explained Anton. “Anyone can give money. This is something we can do for the military that is allowing us to live today like it was Sept. 10, 2001. They are keeping us safe.”

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the valley cooks have barbecued more than 130,000 steaks for troops in military hospitals and on bases in combat areas, as well as stateside. On Christmas Day 2007, four cooks, including Anton, traveled to a medical outpost in Iraq to barbecue steaks.

“The need continues,” said Anton. “We are asking enormous sacrifices from these kids. We are creating ‘old young people.’ We have exposed these kids to things no one has seen, as these wars have dragged on and the U.S. has become the 911 responder for the world.”

Lt. Kendra Kaufman, a VR-57 pilot who flew legs of the valley cooks’ airlift, called the mission unique because of the “diplomatic and logistics requirements of bringing civilians into multiple combat zones, as well as the challenge of transporting perishable cargo” into an area in which the temperatures are well above 100 degrees.

Crump said he was honored to participate in the mission because he was “inspired by these ‘patriots’ not only giving of their time and money, but more importantly their genuine sincerity and appreciation of our forward deployed troops.”

The son of Olivia Crump of Cleveland and William Crump Jr. of Huntsville, Ala., the squadron’s commander is a graduate of Cleveland High School and Auburn University. He has been in the Navy for 22 years.

After several years of active duty, Crump transitioned to “reserve” status and began flying as a commercial airline pilot. He became a full-time reserve last year to serve as VR-57’s commanding officer.

Crump will remain in the reserves and resume flying for United Airlines after next month’s change of command. He and his wife, Carol, live in San Diego.

Dianne Hardisty is a freelance writer in Bakersfield, Calif. She and her husband, John Hardisty, traveled with the Cooks from the Valley to Bahrain on July 4. She wrote about the cooks' airlift for the Cleveland Daily Banner in Cleveland, Tenn., the home town of the squadron's commanding officer, Bill Crump.

TOM ANTON: A Call To Serve...Meat

Dianne Hardisty — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 05:46:00 GMT

Tom Anton, left, and Vice Adm. William Gortney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, in Bahrain.

Tom Anton’s barbecues began simply: A guy from Bakersfield , with a genuine fondness for the military, boxed up a bunch of prime cut steaks, hauled them to a ship and barbecued them for a bunch of sailors.

Anton’s first barbecue about two decades ago was followed by several more – just one man’s personal expressions of appreciation for the military’s sacrifices.

But after the terrorists’ attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, Anton’s barbecues evolved into a loosely-knit group of about 60 people, called the Cooks From The Valley, traveling like an invading army, barbecuing steaks by the thousands to weary sailors, soldiers and marines, some deployed to the most dangerous and isolated regions of the world.

To understand how a simple barbecue could become such a big deal, you have to go back to their beginnings, which make Anton laugh when he talks about them.

Anton says the closest he came to having a military experience was spending some time in a military school as a kid. The 65-year-old attorney was born and raised in landlocked Bakersfield. But he developed a fondness for the ocean, an interest in boats and a respect for the U.S. Navy. That led to Anton’s involvement in the local Navy League chapter, as its legal advisor.

“The most complicated issue I dealt with was whether or not we could have beer at an event,” recalled Anton during a recent interview. He admitted he was a bit bored by the assignment and pestered to go out on a ship. His pestering landed him with a ride on a ship bound for Seattle.

A Navy officer he met on that ship later became the executive officer of the USS Chandler , a guided missile destroyer. He invited Anton to ride the Chandler home to California from Hawaii. An avid barbecue chef, Anton decided to arrange a taste of valley cooking for the ship’s crew.

Before he flew to Hawaii to board the Chandler, he called a prestigious restaurant on the island and ordered 400 of its best raw steaks. But he hadn’t quite figured out how to get the steaks from the restaurant to the ship at Pearl Harbor.

“I tried to rent a car, but that wasn’t big enough. I tried to get a van, and that didn’t work out either,” he recalled. The solution was to hire a limousine.

Anton crammed boxes of steaks into every inch of the limousine, as Rocky, the driver, fretted that the steaks would bleed out of the boxes and onto the plush upholstery. “I told them they wouldn’t leak. Hell, I had no idea what would happen.”

The ship’s commander, Robert Natter, cleared Anton through the base gate. When the limousine pulled up next to the ship, a senior chief came down to inspect the meat. He ripped into a box, pulled out a slab of meat, and slammed it back into the box, declaring: “It’s not good Navy steaks; it’s too thick.”

A stunned Anton held back his anger. When he looked up at the ship’s bridge, he saw his friend, the executive officer, and Natter laughing at their joke.

Anton and his steaks set sail in a calm sea and beautiful weather. The barbecue was scheduled for the third day of the journey. By then “the weather had turned snotty,” Anton recalled, describing the strong winds and high waves that rocked the ship.

He thought the crew was kidding when they told him he would have to cook the steaks on steel plates in the galley. Instead, he went onto the deck and began preparing the barbecue coals. It was only after he asked to have the ship turned away from the wind that he was ordered to the galley. Anton’s first attempt at barbecuing at sea turned out to be a disappointing steak fry.

That was in 1980. The amicable, fast-talking Anton would not be discouraged. He finagled his way into staging more barbecues – one-man events, 400 to 500 steaks, on ships and bases, every year or two.

Then the terrorists attacked New York and the Pentagon in 2001.

The Chandler’s young commander had moved up the ranks. He was now an admiral, overseeing Atlantic Fleet operations.

Anton called his old friend and asked to do a really big barbecue on board a Navy aircraft carrier.

The admiral’s initial response: “What the [expletive].”

“I told him that he had no idea about the need for private citizens to do something for the military,” Anton recalled. But the admiral was doubtful about the logistics of hauling more than 5,000 steaks out to a ship and barbecuing them.

After some convincing, Natter and other reluctant Navy brass cleared the way for Anton’s barbecue aboard the USS John C. Stennis , as it sailed from Pearl Harbor to San Diego, just eight months after 9/11.

The 12-ounce steaks served to the Stennis crew came from Fresno County’s Harris Ranch . Most of the 50-plus cooks that Anton recruited to help came from Bakersfield. This eclectic group of lawyers, judges and business people paid for the steaks themselves and sweat over barbecue coals to bring a taste of home to the kids fighting the “war on terror.”

Anton recalled that a young woman on the Stennis came up to the cooks, with tears in her eyes. She asked why they had done such a generous thing.

Anton admits that his response to the woman was a bit lame. But he gets emotional when he recalls what a Bakersfield businessman told her.

Ron Surgener was serving in Vietnam, when he was suddenly given orders to return home. Still in his military uniform, he arrived at the airport in San Francisco to jeers. He was stunned and hurt by the reception.

Surgener told the young woman that he made up his mind that he would never let that happen to any other soldier. Surgener and his son, Lester, have participated in many of the Cooks From The Valley barbecues.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Cooks have barbecued more than 70,000 thick, juicy Harris Ranch steaks for soldiers, sailors and marines. The barbecues have been held aboard ships, in military hospitals and on bases in high profile areas, such as the Persian Gulf and Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, as well as stateside. On Christmas Day 2007, four cooks, including Anton, traveled to a medical outpost in Iraq to barbecue steaks.

This month, Anton's cooks traveled with 16,000 pounds of steak to the Persian Gulf, where they barbecued for troops on July 4 at four locations -- at the Naval Support Activity and at Shaikh Isa Air Base, both in Bahrain; aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau in the Persian Gulf, and at Camp Lemonier , a base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, where troops stand watch over Somali pirates.

Anton explained the barbecues are able to come together because “I just happen to know a lot of guys who won’t hang up on me when I call them and ask for help.”

With her husband, John Hardisty , freelance writer Dianne Hardisty traveled with the Cooks from the Valley to Bahrain. She wrote about Tom Anton's barbecue quest in the Bakersfield Californian on July 4, 2010.

Bakersfield "cooks" serve Harris Ranch steaks to troops

Dianne Hardisty — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:01:00 GMT

'Cooks from the Valley' steaks are unloaded in Bahrain.

An army of 60 volunteers, mostly from Bakersfield, Calif., flew to the Persian Gulf and Africa to celebrate July 4 with U.S. soldiers, sailors and marines.

Cooks From The Valley were dispatched in teams to barbecue 12-ounce Harris Ranch steaks for U.S. troops at Bahrain Naval Air Station, Shaikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain, aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau in the Persian Gulf and at Camp Lemonier , a former French Foreign Legion base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, where troops stand watch over Somali pirates.

It was the first time this loosely-knit group of volunteers had barbecued in four different locations, more than 1,000 miles apart, simultaneously on the same day.

The barbecues were staged to show America’s appreciation for the military’s sacrifices, particularly after the terrorists’ attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. They were intended to bring a taste of home to the troops. Volunteer cooks paid for the steaks and their own expenses.

Airlifting thousands of steaks and cooks to often remote locations, or aboard ships is a logistical challenge. But after barbecuing more than 70,000 steaks since the 9/11 attacks, these events are beginning to resemble the maneuvers of a well-trained army.

But even Bakersfield attorney Tom Anton, who organizes the barbecues, admits this latest far-flung trip was more complex than earlier ones.

The cooks left Bakersfield by bus on June 28, traveling to Lemoore Naval Air Station in Kings County, where they boarded a military cargo plane. Their days-long trip to Bahrain required several fueling and crew-change stops in Europe. They return to Bakersfield on July 7.

Many of those traveling to Bahrain had volunteered for several past trips.

Catherine Gay, who led the team in Isa, first became a cook in 2005 for a barbecue aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. She has since traveled to Dubai, Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, and to several stateside bases and ships.

“Those kids – and yes they are kids – are over there fighting for us. They deserve the best,” she said during interviews with several of the cooks before they left for Bahrain. “It makes you feel good. A lot of times, they don’t even know we are there until they come through the [food] line. They are so grateful. They are so polite.”

Gay found the experience so rewarding that her husband, David, joined her on later trips.

Like many of the cooks, David Gay is a Vietnam War veteran. He recalls that he “crawled home,” after his discharge from the military in 1970. He and the other cooks are committed to treating those fighting today’s wars differently.

“You meet some great kids out there,” said David Gay, who helped lead the team barbecuing in Bahrain. “They are amazing. You come back feeling very good.”

David Gay, Tom Anton, Rocky Spencer and Jeff Peters are so committed to the cooks project that they gave up their Christmas in 2007 to fly to Iraq to barbecue 600 steaks for an expeditionary medical group.

“I do it because I have a passion for it,” said Spencer, an avid cook, who also barbecues at many Bakersfield area fund raising events. But he said it is the appreciation of the troops and camaraderie of the cooks that keep his suitcase packed and him ready to say “yes” when Anton arranges another trip.

“You get such satisfaction from this. It is a privilege, an honor to serve our finest men and women in uniform,” Spencer said.

“It’s a small thing we can do to help bring a little bit of home to the people who are keeping us safe,” said Peters, who is on the team cooking at Camp Lemonier.

J.J. Gianquinto, a Navy veteran, whose son is a Navy reservist, led the team barbecuing on the USS Nassau.

“Tom [Anton] has taken on a project of immense proportion,” noted Gianquinto. “To have four teams at four locations, all preparing steaks to be served at approximately the same time is, in itself, daunting. To have those locations spread as far apart as they are, with requirements as varied as they are is an amazing feat.

“We will be cooking on the flight deck of a carrier under way. Isa is a remote location that is in a very strict Muslim area. Bahrain base is a U.S. Navy installation. Camp Lemonier i right next to Somalia … near one of the pirate bases.

“It is clear that the military is at war, but the rest of the nation is not. Those kids must be recognized and made to know they are appreciated.”

Dianne Hardisty and her husband, Jack, traveled with the Cooks From The Valley. This story written by Dianne Hardisty appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on July 4, 2010.

California stiffs counties that preserve farm land

Dianne Hardisty — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:31:00 GMT

The state shortchanging California counties that have been participating for decades in an agricultural land conservation program is riling folks in the Central Valley, the nation’s food basket.

“Talk is cheap. And so, it seems, are California’s governor and Legislature,” wrote John Hardisty in a Bakersfield Californian opinion article published June 24, 2010. Hardisty headed the Bakersfield Development Services Department until his retirement in 2004. He is now a planning consultant.

“Checks were sent this month to counties, including Kern, to reimburse local governments for the cost of participating in a long-time, highly successful agricultural land preservation program,” he wrote.

“Instead of the $4.7 million Kern County should be receiving under a long-established state Williamson Act formula, the county will be receiving only $133.22. … for its efforts to preserve about 1.6 million acres of agricultural land. Only Fresno County is getting more – a whopping $150.45. … Some counties, such as Orange County, received checks for only a penny,” wrote Hardisty, who as the deputy planning director of California’s rural Kings County in the 1970s administered the Williamson Act .

“This whole fiasco is a sorry result of state government’s fiscal meltdown and its years-long pattern of letting its ‘pain’ roll down to local governments. Governors and legislators pass laws and spend money in Sacramento, then roll the fiscal consequences downhill to cities and counties,” Hardisty wrote.

Last year, the Williamson Act was a casualty of state budget cutting. But rather than kill the program altogether, $1,000 was left in the budget to reimburse local governments for the cost of the program. The state checks that have gone out this month reflect the dividing up of that $1,000.

This contrasts to the $38 million that should have been distributed to help preserve 16.5 million acres of farmland and open space in California.

The Williamson Act, which was authored in 1965 by Kern County Assemblyman John Williamson, provides an economic incentive for farmers to keep farming their land, rather than selling it for residential or commercial development. Owners enter into 10- or 20-year contracts in exchange for a discount on their property tax. Rather than being taxed at the “market rate” – based on the land sprouting houses, rather than crops – it is charged a rate based on the less “valuable” agricultural use.

The state agreed to partially reimburse participating counties for the loss of property tax that resulted from this discount. And it is that agreement that the state reneged on last year.

The Williamson Act is one of California’s most successful agricultural land and open space conservation strategies. It has enabled farmers to keep farming, kept communities from sprawling into prime agricultural land, and helped California maintain its position as the nation’s number one agricultural state – all stated goals of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s and legislators’ attempts to curb “global warming.”

National Chavez Center in Keene, Calif., adds retreat, conference facilities

Dianne Hardisty — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 20:57:45 GMT

Photo by Dianne Hardisty
Paul Chavez, president of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, poses in front of the new conference center.

A dilapidated collection of buildings that once housed Kern County’s sick and fragile children has been transformed into a gracious retreat and conference center that likely would have warmed the heart of the late farm worker advocate Cesar Chavez.

Once known as the Preventorium, a county hospital and residential facility in Keene for under-weight children and children who had contracted tuberculosis, the horseshoe-shaped complex has been restored to its 1929 grandeur.

Nestled at the foot of Three Peaks, a rock outcropping on the northern border of the 187-acre National Chavez Center on Woodford-Tehachapi Road, the retreat and conference center is intended to advance Chavez’s legacy of peaceful advocacy for civil rights and the empowerment of disenfranchised people.

“Dad believed ordinary people can do extraordinary things,” said Paul Chavez, president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation. But to do extraordinary things, Chavez recognized that people need to be trained and inspired.

Assuming a life of self-imposed poverty, Chavez created a labor union, the United Farm Workers, and a social movement, now continued by the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation. The non-profit foundation operates the National Chavez Center in Keene, where Chavez, who died in 1993, is buried. It also oversees a national affordable housing program and a Spanish-language radio network.

“Here is a man who never made more than $6,000 a year. He died at 66 and left no money. But 40,000 people marched behind his casket,” recalled Marc Grossman, Chavez’s long-time spokesman and assistant.

“For 100 years before Cesar, people tried and failed to organize farm workers,” said Grossman, explaining Chavez succeeded by adopting new techniques and strategies, including boycotts and non-violence. Chavez created more than a union. He created a social movement “that has taken on a life of its own.”

In the 1960s, Chavez’s movement was headquartered in Delano, in the crossfire between powerful growers and union organizers. Searching for a more secure location for his family, union officials and volunteers, Chavez learned that Kern County was selling its shuttered tuberculosis sanitarium in Keene. He also suspected pro-agriculture county officials would not sell the property to him.

So instead, movie producer Edward Lewis, a wealthy union supporter, bought the property in 1971. He quickly turned it over to the non-profit National Farm Workers Service Center, which is now merged with the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation.

The compound, which was named Nuestra Senora Reina de La Paz, or more commonly La Paz, became Chavez’s refuge, as well as the hub of union organizing and training for more than two decades.

And that is what Chavez was doing – organizing farm workers in Arizona – when he died in his sleep in 1993.

“Mom came to us and said Dad always wanted to be buried at La Paz,” recalled Paul Chavez. “That meant we would never leave. That weighed on us. The buildings were old and dilapidated.”

The future of La Paz, as well as the movement Chavez created, became the focus of intense evaluation by members of Chavez’s extended family and supporters. The result was the creation of a master plan for La Paz, which included the creation of the retreat and conference center that will open this month.

Paul Chavez recalled that his father’s goal was to provide a place for individuals and groups to gather to work for social justice and civil rights, to learn the skills to organize and do “extraordinary things.” He said creation of a retreat and conference center furthers his father’s goal.

Funding for the retreat and conference center was partially provided by a $2.5 million grant from the California Cultural and Heritage Endowment of the California State Library . Project coordinator Dennis Dahlin estimates the total cost of renovating the former county hospital was $6 million, with matching funds contributed by the foundation and supporters. Professional services and supplies also were donated.

A similar state grant and contributions helped pay for the construction in 204 of a visitors’ center at the entrance to the National Chavez Center. The visitors’ center features Chavez’s office, library and courtyard, as well as the memorial garden, where Chavez is buried.

Chavez’s birthday, March 31, is recognized as an official holiday in 11 states, including California, with observations focused on community service. Educational and social service groups visit and tour the National Chavez Center in Keene year round.

A third phase of the National Chavez Center’s master plan calls for the creation of a cultural center, said Paul Chavez.

Training sessions and programs sponsored by the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation will be held in the new retreat and conference center. In addition, use of the center by groups and individuals for conference and social events, including weddings, can be arranged by calling Manager Monica Parra at 661-823-6271.

The retreat and conference center will officially open on Saturday, June 26, during a celebration from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the National Chavez Center, 29700 Woodford-Tehachapi Road, Keene, Calif.

This article appeared first in the June edition of The Bakersfield Californian’s MAS magazine . A condensed story was posted on June 6, 2010 on Dianne Hardisty’s Examiner page.