Page 7 - Sanger Herald 2-21-19 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 7A THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21. 2019
NEWSOM: The funds can be used to help with water management and re-appropriates the balance of 2016 drinking water funds for schools.
Continued from page 1A
sumption.
AB72 was linked to AB73, which
provides emergency funds for fire recovery in a state devastated by a handful of massive wildfires in the last three-plus years.
The bill also clarifies that fund- ing in the 2017-18 budget for drink- ing water in schools can be given
as grants to public agencies, public water systems, or non-profit orga- nizations. The funds can be used to help with water management and re-appropriates the balance of 2016 drinking water funds for schools.
Newsom spent the first half of his 90-minute visit to the River- view campus visiting with young
students, most elementary age but a few up to high school age. He gave them a brief and sometimes humorous civics lesson on political involvement, even jokingly trying to sway support from a young first-grader who raised his hand to signify he was against the new bill.
Officals at the event included
State Sen. Melissa Hurtado of Sanger, superintendent of Kings Canyon Unified School District John Campbell and Jim Yovino, su- perintendent of schools for Fresno County.
Newsom, Campbell, select par- ents and other education members were part of a brief round table
discussion on the water situation. The discussion took place in
front of about 15 to 20 members
of the media who covered the pro- ceedings and later questioned New- som on a variety of topics — includ- ing the recently scaled back High Speed Rail project in the state.
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ALEX RUIZ: 'The service is the best thing for you,' said Ruiz. 'It’ll either make you or break you.' Continued from page 1A
“It was paradise,” Ruiz said. “You’d go uptown and everybody treated you so good. You’d sit in a bar and everybody’d buy you drinks. They didn’t let you spend no money.”
When the order came that Ruiz was going to be deployed to North Africa,
it came as a surprise, as it wasn’t widely known that the U.S. was involved in the region.
His trip to North Africa took a month, because the boat convoy needed to zig zag around mines that the Germans placed in the ocean.
He spent his time in North Africa fixing damaged fighter planes on various bases as a member of the 309 Repair Squadron.
When he was stationed
in Casablanca, Morocco and Algiers, Algeria, he and the other soldiers were forbid- den from entering each city’s red light district. In Algiers’ it was known as the “Casbah,” and in Casablanca it was the “Medina.”
While walking through the streets of town, Ruiz had to be mindful of cheats and pickpockets.
Sometimes swindlers tried to sell them bottles
full of urine, pretending it was whiskey. Ruiz said they charged $20 a bottle, just slightly under the $21 he earned for his first month of service in the military.
“If you were in a crowded area, they would steal your wristwatches, your wallets, and everything,” Ruiz said. “You always had to be alert.”
In addition to North Af- rica, Ruiz was also deployed in Naples, Italy, where the local people lived a hard life.
“It was dirty,” Ruiz said. “Everything was dirty in those times. You’d see people
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were so many volunteers that he was told to come back another day.
“There were so many guys that were enlisting on December the 8th or 9th, that they couldn’t handle us,” Ruiz said.
When Ruiz enlisted, he reported to San Pedro in Southern California. It took his train all day to make the trip, because it had to make numerous stops to pick up enlistees throughout Califor- nia.
“That was the smartest thing I ever done in my life, when I enlisted in the ser- vice,” Ruiz said “Some of my buddies waited to be drafted - they’re not here no more.”
The war effort needed sol- diers, and new recruits were being shipped out quickly.
“They were drafting some of these kids and just basical- ly giving them three or four months training and shipping ‘em, because they were needed,” Ruiz said. “This country wasn‘t prepared for war at all.
Because he enlisted, Ruiz was able to choose how
he was going to serve. He elected to work with the Air Corps, the precursor to the Air Force.
“If they drafted you,
they put you wherever they needed you, and that was it.”
Before he was deployed overseas, Ruiz was stationed and trained at bases in California, Ohio, Texas and Minnesota.
“I crossed the country twice, back and forth, before I went over seas,” Ruiz said.
During his early continen- tal service, Ruiz said the lo- cals in Ohio treated him and the other soldiers royally.
begging, going through gar- bage cans and stuff, trying to find something to eat.”
After the war ended and he returned home, Ruiz elected to stay in the military until they were able to treat a cavity in his tooth. His service ended in 1946 and he returned to Sanger. Ruiz be- gan working for the Leonard Brothers, a family of grape farmers and winemakers who owned hundreds of acres of vineyards.
One of the company’s owners was Dutch Leonard, a former pitcher for the Bos- ton Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers during the 1910s and 20s who pitched two no- hitters.
Leonard was involved in a controversy when he accused his Tigers manager, Ty Cobb, of fixing games. The case was put on hold indefinitely when Leonard refused to testify at a hearing for the allegations.
Ruiz worked in their packing house, where he developed a relationship with another worker, Josephine, who became his wife in 1948. The two had five children and remained together until Josephine’s death in 1997.
During the Korean War, Ruiz worked at North Ameri- can’s plant in Fresno, helping to retrofit airplanes with jet engines.
Today, Ruiz is still better at fixing complex airplane engines than cars.
“Up until now, I never have worked on cars,” Ruiz, 85, said. “I’m lucky to be able to change the oil.”
Dan Cano, a Sanger re- tiree who landed troops on beaches in the Pacific during WWII, has known Ruiz since 1945.
“He’s a self-made person,” Cano, 83, said. “Our genera-
tion was brought up in the depression era, and we didn’t have nothin’.”
Cano said serving in the military is some of the best education one can receive, especially during wartime.
“It is hard to say unless you are in that person’s shoes, what effect the war had on you,” Cano said.
Ruiz agrees, and said that his time serving in the military gave him as much education as his high school diploma would have.
“The service is the best thing for you,” Ruiz said. “It’ll either make you or break you.
“It’s the best thing for a young guy that doesn’t know exactly what to do.”
Despite offers from relatives to move elsewhere, Ruiz has lived in Sanger his whole life.
“I just liked the town, I guess,” Ruiz said.
“The man up there has been good to me.”
The above story about Mr. Ruiz was written by Josh Lo- pez and was first published in the Herald on Aug. 14, 2008.
Our condolences to the Ruiz family.
Mr. Ruiz's obituary is on page 2A of today's Herald.
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