Raymon Turner joined the Rochester VFW and American Legion in 1966 after leaving the army. He also served 20 years in the Indiana National Guard. His step-father, Byron Hill, was present at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, and his biological father, a New Zealander, was killed in the Battle of El-Alamein fighting in 1942. InkFreeNews photo by David Hazledine

By DAVID HAZLEDINE
InkFreeNews

Rochester — Among the members of Rochester’s VFW Post 1343 present at the Dec. 7 ceremony remembering Pearl Harbor was Raymon Turner, who has a personal connection to that historic day. His step-father, Byron Hill, was actually present during the Japanese surprise attack that thrust the United States into World War II.

“He went over for breakfast, and he heard the planes zoom over … bombs were going off all over … He said he knew he was in the war then.”

But World War II had already fundamentally changed the trajectory of Turner’s life. Although he grew up in Rochester, he was actually born in Aukland, New Zealand, which had joined the war in 1939 along with the rest of the British Commonwealth. However, his biological father was killed in North Africa during the Battle of El-Alamein, one of the first significant allied victories against Germany in 1942.

But as fate would have it, following Pearl Harbor, Byron Hill had gone on to fight against the Japanese in another historic — and costly — early victory, the battle for Guadalcanal, where he was one of roughly 8,000 wounded. From there, he was transported to an army hospital in New Zealand, where Turner’s mother was a nurse.

The two were married, and after the war they moved back to Rochester, where Turner was raised on Pontiac Street and graduated from the old Rochester High School. Like other American boys, he enjoyed sports, especially baseball. “I was a little leaguer,” he recalled.

However, he would not become a citizen of the United States until decades later, in 1986. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was young,” he said. He had even considered returning to New Zealand, which he has not seen in over 70 years. But he would travel the world as a member of the United States Army and, later, the Indiana National Guard.

“I always wanted to be in the military,” said Turner. His first choice was the Navy, but he instead joined the Army in November 1963. “I was in basic training when Kennedy was assassinated. They locked the base down.”

He served from 1963-66, and after basic was trained as a tank turret technician at Fort Knox. Though the Vietnam War was in its infancy, Turner spent most of his early service in Europe and the Middle East, where he was stationed on the Syrian border training Israeli soldiers on tanks.

After leaving the army, Turner returned to Indiana, working construction. “I was out of the Army quite a few years before I joined the National Guard. … I’d always wished I stayed in the service.”

In the guard, Turner served as a retention NCO and mess steward, and had training in a variety of skills at Fort Campbell, Fort Hood, Fort Atterbury and others. He was in the guard roughly 20 years, and was among those selected for security at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. “I’ve never seen so many people in one place in my life.”

While serving in the guard, Turner also worked at AK Industries in Plymouth and then the Rochester Wastewater Department for 17 years.

But like his step-father, Turner also chose to join the VFW and American Legion Post 36, where he was been a member since 1966 and served as a commander at the post and district levels. He was legion commander six times.