Committal Services with Full Military Honors will be held for Melvin R. Hershberger on Friday, May 20th @ 10:00 AM at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery.
Melvin Ray Hershberger was born in Goshen Indiana on 30 July 1940 to Amish Parents, Crist and Othny (maiden name Gingerich) Hershberger. He grew up with three brothers (Martin, Ernest, John) and three sisters (Barbara, Katera and Sarah). To Amish standards Melvin was an outgoing youth. He had an interest and penchant for taking things apart to learn how to put them back together. Later in life he met his match. To his frustration he couldn’t put back together a German Cuckoo clock. It never chimed again. While still in Goshen, he got a car. Once when thinking about his youth he told that he had to replace the tires every month due to the wild hydroplaning he did on the gravel roads around Bend Indiana, where he went to high school. Melvin wanted to see the world and big mechanical things like aircraft, ships, and cars. So he left the Amish life behind and joined the Army in 1959. While stationed in Munich, Germany he frequented bars right across the street from the large Fraukirche in old town Munich. Once while there with his soldier friends he met Alice Heinrich. She was beautiful and bold and she instantly fell in love with him. She followed him (then and throughout her marriage) to wherever the Army stationed him. They were married in September 1961 and had their small reception dinner (4 – including the witnesses, Singer family) at their favorite dinner spot, the Donisl on Marienplatz.
In the Army, using his innate ability, Melvin got his dream job of aircraft mechanic. After Germany he was stationed in San Francisco where he also learned to pilot aircraft: military helicopters and single engine propeller planes. He would take his entire family (son: Richard Melvin and daughter: Kitty Othny) flying in a Cessna 150 on Sunny days. It was in San Francisco that Melvin transitioned from slide pictures to filming his family on vacations. He spent quite a few hours cutting and pasting reel to reel film together for shows, usually a mix of projected slides and film. Melvin was alternately stationed in Germany and the USA. In his career he took his family to Kitzingen, Munich, and Nurnberg, Germany. He only had two tours of duty where he couldn’t take his family (3 years total): Vietnam and Korea. The Army was fun for him. He enjoyed the camaraderie and big equipment. Besides the numerous service metals he received he received an Air Metal, Army Commendation Metal and Sharpshooter ribbon. He became a Quality Supervisor and a Senior Sergeant for aircraft (UH-30 helicopter) maintenance. Melvin wasn’t very ambitious but upon retiring from the US Army in 1982 (after 22 years) tried to build a roller shutter manufacturing and installation business in Killeen. He didn’t have the entrepreneurial spirit and after only a couple years closed the company. He went back to work with helicopters as a Liaison between the US Army and McDonnell Douglas manufacturer of the awesome Apache-AH-64 helicopter. He also expanded his reach academically and taught Aircraft mechanics at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. He was a proud professor in the days of the first calculators. He reminded his students that he acquired his technical degree using a slide rule.
Melvin died in his home in Killeen Texas on 4 October 1999 from pancreatic cancer obtained from the combination of Agent orange exposure (in Vietnam) and exposure to Trichloroethylene (TCE is a solvent, often used to clean aircraft parts originally used without gloves or ventilation). The focus of Melvin’s life included learning how things worked and keeping up with his wife. In public, he was often quiet. He was happiest when he was dissecting something like a vacuum tube television, boat engine or checking out a ship. He enjoyed playing the Organ and water skiing. His favorite drink was Beam and Coke.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.crawfordbowersfuneralhome.com for the Hershberger family.
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
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