Man recalls days of service, camping

For more than 35 years now, a group of friends who all served together in the military have been coming back to Yuma every year to go camping in the Kofa Desert.

As part of the camping trip this year, those friends, and some of their family members, gathered at the Yuma Armed Forces Park on Friday evening to pay their respects to four friends who won't be accompanying them anymore.

"We were all closer than most brothers," said Manuel Bush Hedges, of their deceased friends, three of whom had passed away in the past 2-1/2 years. "They will be missed around the campfire, that is for sure, but their stories will still be told."

The friends, all of whom are retired veterans from the Marines, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard, met and became friends in the early 1970s while they were stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.

The camping trips continued after the men retired from the military, essentially turning into a yearly reunion that would draw them back to Yuma from places as far away as South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Indiana, Oregon and California.

"This is a real special place for us," said Jay Bibler, who started going on the camping trips in 1981. "We have had a lot of good times over the years and expect them to continue."

In addition to Hedges and Bilber, the group of friends included, Thomas Krimminger, R.D. Bucky Walters, Gordon Pirtle and James Wible.

"Our wives would stay in town and visit while us boys and our children went out camping in the desert for three days and three nights," Hedges said

Hedges said the group decided to purchase individual service plaques for themselves at the Armed Forces Park when they found out about the place.

They also all pitched in, Hedges said, and bought plaques in memory of their friends who had already passed away.

The plaques had been hung at the park for about a month now, but this camping trip was the first opportunity the friends had to see the plaques together as a group.

During a brief ceremony they held on the park's grounds, several of their friends spoke about some of their most memorable times with their deceased friends - Bill Kerekes, retired MCAS fire chief and owner of Mesa Sport Store; Neil Koch, USMC Ret.; Phil Brenan, USMC Ret. and Scott Smith, USMC Ret. - and about the moments that defined who they were.

They were remembered for their friendship and contribution to family, country and the Corps.

Bilber said he and the remaining friends, along with their family members, would be heading out into the Kofas the following morning, adding that they wouldn't be going alone.

"It's going to be special because we know they will be with us in memory," Bilber said.

All of the friends say the camping trip was originally Kerekes' idea, and that it probably wouldn't have happened, much less continued all these years, without him.

"He made this group what it was," Bilber said.

Not only were all the friends aviators, but they were also Vietnam veterans.

The camping (reunion) trips, also had an effect on many of the men's children, some of whom went on to serve stints in the armed forces.

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.