{"id":49030,"date":"2025-11-12T02:52:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/49030\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T02:52:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:52:29","slug":"local-veterans-share-stories-of-service-and-impact-on-their-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/49030\/","title":{"rendered":"Local veterans share stories of service and impact on their lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 As Veterans Day is observed across the nation, veterans in Kern County are sharing their stories of service and how those experiences continue to shape their lives today. <\/p>\n<p>Retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Lawrence J. Walker, who served his country starting in 1971, recalls receiving his draft notice and deciding, &#8220;This is what I am going to do.&#8221; Walker said, &#8220;I was a leader from day one in the military and I took that to heart and I made sure that I knew how to teach other soldiers what they needed to know also.&#8221; Initially assigned to the infantry, a knee issue led him to serve in a field he knew best, mechanics, eventually taking him to Vietnam. Walker completed his service after 21 years.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Veterans enjoy a free meal at the American Legion Post 26 Bakersfield. (KBAK\/KBFX)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/989ee32e-7b99-4bef-9023-3853ffa72eb9-Image23.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Veterans enjoy a free meal at the American Legion Post 26 Bakersfield. (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n<p>David Berglund was a Marine Corps sergeant. He expressed gratitude for the nation&#8217;s recognition of veterans, saying, &#8220;I appreciate the fact that America loves to honor their veterans. It\u2019s very special.&#8221; At the age of 16, Berglund aspired to work in law enforcement, joining the Marines as a training ground before serving with the Los Angeles Police Department for 30 years. He later continued his service by providing executive protection for multi-billionaires.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Veterans enjoy a free meal at the American Legion Post 26 Bakersfield. (KBAK\/KBFX)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/58f5afc2-958d-4216-a594-538e207dd060-Image2.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Veterans enjoy a free meal at the American Legion Post 26 Bakersfield. (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n<p>Dennis Cascarelli, a staff sergeant in the Air Force, continues to give back by volunteering at veterans events. He shared, &#8220;I want them to experience what I have experienced and what I have experienced by going to the Honor Flight and being in the parade it\u2019s lifted a whole weight off of my shoulders like I can breathe again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These veterans were among those attending a luncheon at the American Legion Post 26 following the <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/veterans-day-parade-coordinator-says-to-celebrate-families-too\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Veterans Day parade<\/a>, celebrating their service and the ongoing impact of their experiences.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Veterans Day Parade in Downtown Bakersfield. (KBAK\/KBFX)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/f6acb9b1-3280-41ed-8805-9ba1afb3dc04-Image111.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Veterans Day Parade in Downtown Bakersfield. (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 As Veterans Day is observed across the nation, veterans in Kern County are sharing their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-49030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}