Sisters honors American Legion veteran

Distinguished guests and loyal veterans turned out Wednesday evening at City Hall to pay tribute to Cecil Hector, a World War II veteran whose 60 years of service to the American Legion was honored with a special ceremony.

Post Commander Gene Hellickson presented a humble and surprised Hector with a "Certificate of Continuous Membership" during the post's weekly meeting.

The American Legion was founded in 1919 by veterans returning from Europe after World War I as a mutual-aid veterans' organization to benefit those who served during a wartime period. The group serves nearly three million members in over 14,000 posts worldwide.

District Commander Larry Matthews and Judge Advocate Pat Cotton made the drive from La Pine for the event and thanked Hector for his dedication and commitment to the American Legion.

Cody Standiford, an Iraq War veteran from Representative Greg Walden's office in Bend, delivered a letter directly from Walden to commemorate the night and congratulated Hector and his accomplishments, encapsulating them as "nothing short of an impressive milestone."

"Your peers celebrate with you today because of your longstanding, faithful and dedicated allegiance to the ideals of the American Legion," he read. "Sixty years as an American Legion member speaks volumes about your depth of commitment to your country and your fellow veterans."

"All I can say is it's been a pleasure to serve," said Hector. "I should have suspected when everybody kept calling me to see if I was going to be here tonight. Heck, any time I wake up and I'm still breathing it's a party. I'll be 85 this year and I tell all the guys, when you serve... it pays to serve all."

Hector was born in Burbank, California, in 1926 and joined the Navy in December of 1943, serving on 13 different ships and 11 land bases including Pearl Harbor, Johnston Island, Okinawa, Saipan and Guam until his discharge in 1947. He saw considerable action in various locations in the Pacific Theater, mostly from the deck of the historic battleship Alabama.

"I was never in any one place very long," he recalled. "They'd fly us in and we'd do our thing and get the hell out. When they dropped the two atomic bombs I was on the carrier Hancock off the coast of northern Japan. All we saw was a lot of strange, greyish colored clouds in the sky. We didn't know what we were even looking at."

"He's a paid-up life member, which is very rare," said Hellickson during the break, passing out slices of cake decorated with red, white and blue icing. "That's quite an honor."

Hector's daughter, Kathy Hector, mingled with friends and veterans and shared thoughts on her father's legacy.

"He's an extremely patriotic man who loves his country and does everything he can to support it, and I admire that about him," she said. "We were all told tonight was a secret and we kept it. I think he really was surprised."

Karl Farr and his wife Pat attended and reflected back on his 63-year friendship with Hector.

"Cecil was married to my wife's sister, Lois. We even drove him to Las Vegas to get married," Farr said. "I think he truly deserves this recognition and award. He's been a great help and an inspiration to a lot of the American Legion and VFW men."

"I had a pretty good career," said Hector. "I bounced around a lot and didn't have to put up with any one bunch of guys."