Grand marshal announced Ruben Bonilla served in U.S. Marines
Barely out of high school and 18 years old, Ruben Bonilla was looking at his odds of winding up in Vietnam. That was at the height of that war and he felt his chance of being drafted was high.
So, to give him some options, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps where he served for nine years, then did another 11 years in the Marine Corps Reserves. Ne never really reached Vietnam.
He is the 2015 Porter- ville Veterans Day Parade grand marshal.
“When you’re young, you’re invincible,” he said, describing his thoughts back in 1969, a year after graduating from Porterville High School and just finishing up his first year at Porterville College. “If I’m going to get picked (drafted), they’ll just send me to the Army,” he thought.
He said many of his friends were either being drafted or enlisting and it was a cousin who pointed him towards the Marines. “I thought, that’s for me,” he recalled. Turns out, his draft number — by then the draft lottery had begun — was “so high I probably wouldn’t have been drafted.”
Still, he has no regrets serving and while he did not serve in Vietnam, he lost many friends in that long war.
He does not call himself a Vietnam veteran.
“I don’t want to take away from those who were there,” he said, choking up. “I lost a lot of friends. I was lucky. I always got transferred elsewhere.” One of those he lost was
a very close friend. “He was like a brother,” he said, again choking up.
During his nine years with the Marines, Bonilla served in several different capacities, including aboard the USS Hancock, an aircraft carrier. He was on that ship off the coast of Vietnam when America left that country and that war in 1975.
While he was with a squadron, he never got credit for serving in a war zone. He said being part of the evacuation was a little unreal.
“It was upbeat,” he said of the mood aboard ship. “They didn’t feel we lost the war.”
From there, he finished his military days with three years in Hawaii and then six months in Japan. He returned to Porterville, but
served in the reserves for 11 years.
A strong family man, he has three brothers and three sisters. Two of his brothers served in the Army.
He married his high school sweetheart, a girl he knew as a little boy living close to each other on A Street. He and Patricia celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary Oct. 10. They have three daughters.
Back in Porterville, he worked for Josten’s. “I was fresh out and I needed to get some work,” he recalled of those days in 1978. He stayed with that company until it closed its doors in 1997. “I was one of the last out the door,” he said, because he was the safety officer.
He recalled those were tough times. He next went to work for HIT Products in Lindsay, and then the NDS in Lindsay, getting laid off from both of those jobs. He currently works for Eagle
Mountain Casino in the human resources department.
“One of these days I’m looking to retire,” he said.
Because he did not serve in a war zone, he has not been eligible for the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), but has served in several capacities in the American Legion. He has been with the Terra Bella, Strathmore and Porterville Legion posts.
With Porterville, he has served as historian, second vice, first vice and then as commander for two years. He is presently the finance officer.
He was surprised to learn he had been named the grand marshal.
“I was kind of stunned. I never really thought about it,” he said.
Still, he admits it will be a proud moment for him and his family on Nov. 11 when he rides down Main Street in front of thousands of people.