Korean War veteran Ivan Wohlgemuth

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92-year-old Ivan Wohlgemuth of Reedley, CA appears on episode #771 of Hometown Heroes, airing February 4-9, 2023. A native of Hooker, OK who moved west with his family in the wake of the Dust Bowl, Wohlgemuth served as a medic during the Korean War.

“Our family decided to move to California, like a lot of Okies did at that time,” you’ll hear Wohlgemuth explain. “We had a ’31 Chevy Sedan pulling a four-wheel grain trailer with all our belongings in it.”

The family would settle in the small town of Orland in northern California, where he remembers having the option of attending school barefoot. He was ten years old when Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and other military installations. Along with his father and brother, Ivan soon found a way to help.

“Our area decided to have a plane watch,” he says, describing his regular four-hour volunteer shifts. “We were kind of fearful that the Japanese were coming into California too.”

The family would later move south to Dinuba, CA, and by the time Ivan had graduated from high school, he had not only gotten to understand the plight of Americans of Japanese ancestry who had been forced from their homes, but he had actually visited post-war Japan. Listen to Hometown Heroes to hear the unique mission – and the 250 sidekicks you might not expect – that first took him to the country where he and his future wife would spend two decades as missionaries.

Ivan and Jean had met at Immanuel High School in Reedley, CA, and their fathers sang in a quartet together. They were married in 1951, not long before Ivan was drafted into Army service in the Korean War. A conscientious objector as a result of his Mennonite faith, Wohlgemuth was not required to carry a gun. He became a medic and was assigned to the 212th Neuropsychiatric Unit, part of the 123rd Medical Holding Company. 14 months in Korea made him very familiar with the extreme weather in winter and summer, as well as the challenging realities of caring for soldiers who had been severely impacted by the psychological effects of war. You’ll hear Ivan share some of those memories, as well as the day he found out via telegram that he had become a father. He wouldn’t have the chance to meet that first born child until the end of his deployment, when he returned home and searched out his family.

“Finally they saw me, and my wife came out with our daughter, Sandra,” you’ll hear him remember, with the telltale tenor of stirred emotions in his voice. “I was so happy to see them both.”

Wohlgemuth went into farming upon the end of his two years of active duty, but later felt called to the ministry. The young father worked multiple jobs to pay for his schooling at Reedley College, Fresno State, and Fresno Pacific Seminary before heading overseas to Japan. The Wohlgemuths would spend 20 years there, planting churches in Hiroshima and Neyagawa that continue to grow today.

You’ll hear some of his missionary memories on Hometown Heroes, as well as his experiences in returning to Korea and to Japan in more recent years, in addition to reflections on his trip to Washington, D.C. with Central Valley Honor Flight. When asked for advice he would share with others considering a calling to the mission field, Wohlgemuth turns to a quote from 19th Century British missionary C.T. Studd.

“Only one life, ’twill soon be past,” you’ll hear Studd’s refrain echo in Wohlgemuth’s voice. “Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

In the eyes of his son, Terry, who followed in his parents’ missionary footsteps with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Borneo, Ivan has etched quite a lasting legacy.

“He likes to plant and see the harvest, but he’s a man of God and a man of integrity,” you’ll hear Terry say of his father the citrus farmer. “That’s what makes his life, I think, very special, because he continues to see the fruit of his labor.”

—Paul Loeffler