Blaise Keller
Updated: May 19, 2020 07:09 PM
Created: May 19, 2020 07:02 PM
(ABC 6 News) - He's lived through two pandemics, the first being the Spanish Flu, and the Great Depression but Kenneth Hoffmeyer has also served in two wars - World War 2 as well as the Korean War. Tuesday afternoon, Hoffmeyer added another milestone to his growing list - turning 105.
Kenneth Hoffmeyer was born in 1915 in a small town north of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The town, Corunna, according to Archive.org, had three schools, two mills, a hotel as well as a bank in 1914. His son, Mark, said his father grew up very poor with no working electricity, heat or plumbing. It was the draft, Kenneth says, that got him out of poverty.
"My life improved after I got drafted," said Kenneth Hoffmeyer.
A humble man, Kenneth's son Mark said his dad was training in Denver when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. It was because of this, that Kenneth was sent to officer training school in Miami.
From there, said Mark, Kenneth got secret papers to go Edmund, Alberta, where he would become second in command at an airbase that helped shuttle aircraft and bombers through Russia for the Allied Forces. Those aircraft would then go on to be dispersed throughout the South Pacific and in Europe.
But when you ask Kenneth about his time, he said he's just thankful that after serving for six years he made it out "without a scratch". Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by his son and daughter-in-law, who is credited for coming up with the idea, as well as local VFW, American Legion and DAV chapters, helped throw a unique celebration for this unique veteran.
"The family reached out to our office, I think it was already last week, and asked if we had recognized any milestone birthdays for centurion veterans... which, we have not in the past," said Nathan Pike, a supervisor for County Veterans Service Officers. Pike is a veteran himself, serving in the United States Army.
Pike said that after Kenneth's family reached out, Hoffmeyer could be the oldest veteran living in Olmsted County. So Pike, along with a few others, did their research, looked at and compared their records and
confirmed that Hoffmeyer was, indeed, the oldest veteran.
"It felt like a brush fire that got out of control real quick but, um, it came together very nicely."
Not only did Hoffmeyer ring his 105th birthday, but he also received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Representative Jim Hagedorn. When asked if he had a secret to living to be 105 years old, Kenneth says reading the many publications on how to maintain good health and he doesn't know how he'll celebrate turning 106.
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