After a lifetime of collecting heroes, the top of my list is occupied by my brother-in-law, Al Hoffman, who will reach his 90th year in September.
Al lives with his wonderful wife, Patti, in San Marcos.
He was born in 1921 on a successful Kansas wheat farm pioneered by his ancestors in the vicinity of Oberlin.
When Al was 9, his father dropped beside him and died of a heart attack.
That left his single mom struggling to support the remaining young family by farming during the doubly dark days of the dust bowl and the depression.
When a relative offered an opportunity for room, board, and income, he left the farm for Newcastle, Colo., where he worked in a truck stop.
When the Civilian Conservation Corps opened a camp at nearby Glenwood Springs, Al joined up and served there until enlisting in the Marines.
His first duty after graduating from MCRD was to be assigned as a China Marine dispatched to Shanghai but too late to stop the Japanese from occupying the international settlement.
Returning to San Diego, he was assigned to a Marine Aviation Unit on North Island (which then was actually separate from Coronado in those days).
Al became an enlisted pilot quickly reaching the rank of master sergeant.
His unit, VMO 251, flew Grumman Wildcats and was first stationed at Ton Touta, New Caledonia and later Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides.
There, Al was ordered to pilot Marine Corps Gen. Roy Geiger's PBY command aircraft. Geiger was then commanding the Marine forces invading Guadalcanal, the island the Japanese intended to use to invade Australia.
The slow-moving PBY was a workhorse for the ground troops, ferrying wounded, supplies, and Gen. Geiger to and from Pacific-command summit meetings.
On one flight Al retrieved Joe Foss from the Island of Malaita after he was shot down. Foss went on to earn the Medal of Honor by becoming "ace of aces" among pilots, brigadier general, governor, and professional football commissioner.
The next flight of the PBY should have been its last. The Marine base at Henderson Field came under sustained attack. Al and his crew were ordered to fly the general's plane on a suicide mission against the Japanese fleet off Tassafarranga with two torpedoes the plane had ferried in from Noumea.
Al's crew successfully attacked the Sasago Maru. The PBY suffered 175 bullet holes and other substantial damage. That earned Al the first of his two Distinguished Flying Crosses.
Ordered to take the plane for repairs, Al and his crew landed at Espiritu Santo for fuel.
While there he encountered the fabled Evans Carlson, commanding officer of the 2d Raider Battalion and his executive officer, James Roosevelt, son of the president who was to become a life-time personal friend of Al and his family.
Carlson inscribed and then gave Al one of his famous "Bowie"-type knives which he recently donated to the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico.
A severe case of malaria sent Al back to El Toro to recover and then back to the South Pacific where he served with VMF 113 in support of attacks on Mellu, Ennuebing, Emumennet, Ennubir, Ennugarret in the Kwajalein Atoll, "and nameless others."
During the attack on Engebi Island, Al's aviation Marines were told to forget their aircraft, pick up their rifles, and hit the island as infantry men where they fought the Japanese defenders face to face.
During the following months, Al met and flew with another famous American.
Charles A. Lindbergh, the first man to solo the Atlantic was very controversial during World War II.
The horrible experience that he and his wife endured after the kidnapping and murder of his son drove them to live in England for a time where he got to know pro-German Englishmen and often visited Hitler's renascent Germany, where he was widely feted.
Impressed by what he saw, he returned to the United States and joined millions of other Americans who, remembering the slaughter of World War I, wanted to avoid another such war.
This did not endear him to President Roosevelt who was trying to achieve the opposite. Roosevelt used his influence to deprive Lindbergh of his commission and work.
For a time, only the blatant anti-Semite Henry Ford employed Lindbergh to convert automobile plants to aircraft manufacture.
Lindbergh was also a superb aircraft engineer whose talents America needed to catch up with superior Japanese and German models.
Roosevelt eventually relented allowing Lindbergh represent the United Aircraft Corp., manufacturer of the Navy's F4U Corsair, as their civilian field representative.
Lindbergh visited active squadrons to obtain information on how to improve the construction, operations and maintenance of present and future aircraft.
Lindbergh was with Al's squadron for a week, flying combat missions and mixing with the men. Al found him to be kind, courteous and respectful to everyone.
Upon leaving the Marine Corps, after a number of other endeavors, Al became a senior FAA inspector.
He has lived a lifetime of kindness and courtesy to all. He is beloved by his wife, kids, and grandkids.
Foss, Carlson, Roosevelt fils, Lindbergh, they are all heroes. But Al Hoffman ranks with the best.
Stirling, a former U.S. Army officer, has been elected to the San Diego City Council, state Assembly and state Senate. He also served as a municipal and superior court judge in San Diego. Send comments to larry.stirling@sddt.com. Comments may be published as Letters to the Editor.
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