WY Veterans Receive Overdue Diplomas

Cheyenne Wyoming Tribune-Eagle ^ | 06-16-04 | Dynes, Michelle

[Theodore R.]

Veterans receive overdue diplomas

By Michelle Dynes rep2@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

CHEYENNE - It took more than 40 years, but Frank Wilhelm finally got his high school diploma Tuesday.

The Vietnam War veteran earned his Wheatland High School diploma along with three other veterans.

Wilhelm entered the armed forces in 1959, just a year shy of graduation. While he was never able to wear a cap and gown, he said his life turned out just fine.

"If I had to live my life over again, I'd do it the same way," he said.

The honorary diplomas are part of Wyoming's Operation Recognition program, said Dorothy Boam, a commissioner from the Wyoming Veterans Commission.

"These guys who went into the service went in before they graduated from high school," she said. "They went in with open hearts. When they came back, they were seasoned veterans. They were men. It would have been difficult to go back to high school. Their experience aged them quickly."

She said when many veterans returned, they started families and entered the workforce. While some may have gotten a GED, this isn't a diploma from their original high school, Boam said.

"This is for protecting liberty, defending freedom and coming home," she said.

More than 120 honorary high school diplomas have been given out across the state through the program, she added.

Frank Zavorka, a World War II veteran, said, "This has been a long time coming. I gave up on it."

He left high school in Hawk Springs early to stay with his father on the family farm until he was drafted in 1943. He said his Czechoslovakian father told him all he would ever need is an eighth-grade education.

"High school was for rich kids, and at that time college was never even heard of," he said.

Thomas Glover, a veteran of the Korean War, said when he was attending South High School in Denver, he was already in the Reserves. In 1951, just a year before graduation, he said he was called to active duty.

Fellow Korean War veteran Leslie Bridwell said he took the GED during basic training. He was told he passed and he'd be getting a diploma from his high school in Windsor, Colo. But the diploma never came, and the school had no record of Bridwell's test. He said he had no idea where the mix-up occurred.

But Bridwell said it "feels great" to finally hold his long-ago earned diploma.

"Well, like they said, I needed it for a job," he said. "But I was successful and fought hard enough."