On Jan. 1, 1944, Bob Herring Sr. was 18 years old and working in Encampment when his boss told him he would not have to go into the military. He had Herring deferred - Herring would not have to join the conflict which had already taken the lives of several of his friends and neighbors in Encampment.
While this would typically be a message of relief for most people, but it was different for Herring.
No one, not even his boss, was going to keep him from joining the war effort.
"I unloaded on him with a bunch of foul language. I told him he couldn't do that to me," Herring said.
Herring quit his job that day and went to Denver to enlist in the Navy. He served in the Navy in communications from 1944-1946. His job consisted of sending and receiving radio messages at a base in Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i.
Though he enjoyed working in communications, Herring said he wanted to see more of the Pacific. However, his requests to transfer to a different part of the pacific were denied. He was told by his commanding officer he was too much of an asset to lose.
"He said, 'you are one of my preferred hands here. As long as I am outfit, you are going to stay here'," Herring said recalling what his commanding officer told him when he asked for a transfer.
Working in communications had its difficult moments, Herring said. He had to handle several urgent messages, many of which were hard to deal with.
"We handled lots of messages of ships being sunk and whatnot," Herring said.
But many great things came out of his service as well. He said he met so many incredible people who he kept in contact with after the war was over.
Perhaps one of the most significant result of his military service was meeting his wife of 66 years and seven months. Herring said he first saw her in Denver when he was enlisting for the military. His wife was volunteering for the Navy.
He didn't talk to her until they met in Pearl Harbor. Herring said his wife outranked him, but they ended up dating and getting married anyways.
"My wife kept on asking me to marry her, and we weren't even dating at the time" Herring said. "Finally, she asked 'will you marry me,' and I said 'huh' and I she thought I said yes."
After his service, Herring headed back to Wyoming to be a rancher. His son, Bob Herring Jr., followed in his parents' footsteps and joined the Army. "I was very proud of him," Herring said of his son joining the military.
In the years after his service, Herring visited Pearl Harbor and Washington D.C. to view World War II memorials. Herring said viewing the memorials were emotional for him as he remembered all of his fellow servicemen and women who died in combat.
Herring continues to be involved with the Platte Valley VFW, and served as its commander for many years.
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