County recognizes Murrieta veteran and 8 others who missed getting diplomas

MORENO VALLEY – Nine U.S. military veterans who heeded their country’s wartime call to service and missed graduating from high school received their diplomas during a special ceremony Thursday, Nov. 11, in Moreno Valley. Among them was Walter Schedler, a 95-year-old World War II veteran from Murrieta.

Operation Recognition, now in its 10th year, honors veterans of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War by awarding them their high school diplomas, even if they did not finish high school. The program, which awards high school diplomas to residents of the county who missed completing high school due to military service or due to internment in WWII Japanese-American relocation camps is sponsored by the Riverside County Office of Education with assistance from the Riverside County Department of Veterans’ Services.

“Our veterans are qualified and well-deserving to receive diplomas,” said county Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Young. “We want to do everything we can to make it possible for these outstanding individuals to share that experience with their family and friends.”

Schedler, a U.S. Army veteran, was the oldest veteran at the ceremony. He was in the California National Guard and was activated to full-time service after the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7. This year will mark the 75th anniversary of the attack that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy.” The attack killed more than 2,400 naval and military personnel.

Schedler was at the Battle of Guadalcanal, where he and fellow soldiers “dug foxholes for hours and … spent a lot of time in them” enduring and repelling repeated wave of attacks by the Japanese. After his wartime service, Schedler became a cabinet maker, working in the business for nearly 30 years.

“After I got into adult life, I said, ‘Oh, boy, I should have stayed in high school,’” he said in a video interview before the ceremony. “‘Course I had to make a living so I did everything that I could to make a little money. I’ll be really happy to finally get my high school diploma.”

Schedler said he always wanted his high school diploma.

“I couldn’t go to college without it,” he said. “I got along in my adult life without it, but I will be glad to get it.”

The nine former service members, some in uniform, were clad in caps, tassels and stoles as they received their graduation certificates during a 2 p.m. ceremony at the Moreno Valley Conference & Recreation Center.

Operation Recognition was initiated in 2007, and since then, more than 300 veterans who reside in Riverside County have received diplomas.

The program is based on California Education Code 51440, which permits the retroactive granting of graduation certificates to honorably discharged or retired veterans who served while the country was on a war footing. All they have to do is sign up.

The Office of Education processes applications every year until the first week of October. To see a full video of Schedler’s story, to learn more about Operation Recognition or to sign up to receive a diploma, visit www.rcoe.us and search for Operation Recognition.

City News Service contributed to this story.

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