Aromas News

Even today, few people know about the Medal of Honor winner who lived along River Road. His name was Beauford Anderson. He was a businessman and a public servant. He was also a U.S. Army veteran, a national hero who fought in World War II with great distinction — though he was reluctant to speak of it. 'The real heroes never came back,' Anderson once told his son, James, when James was 10. That statement — given impact and credence by Beauford's own bloody battlefield encounters and wounds — was the only time James heard his dad talk about his war experiences. 'What I did know, I read in a book, 'The Medal of Honor of the U.S. Army,'' James said. James lives in the family's River Road house. His father and his mother, Phyllis, both died in 1996. James still has Beauford's medals, the Medal of Honor among them. 'Sometimes my dad would talk about the war but only with a few buddies, and they'd go into the den,' James said. On Memorial Day 1946, U.S. Army Tech. Sgt. Beauford Anderson received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for combat heroism, from President Harry Truman. The award followed actions Beauford took on Okinawa in April 1945. Back then, he was part of the 96th Infantry Division. One morning before dawn, a powerful Japanese force counterattacked his unit's flank. Beauford ordered his men, most of them wounded, to take cover in an old tomb. 'Armed with only a carbine, he faced the onslaught alone,' the Medal of Honor citation reads. After emptying one magazine at pointblank range, he seized an enemy mortar dud and threw it back among the charging enemy soldiers, killing several as it exploded. Finding a box of mortar shells, Beauford pulled the safety pins. He banged the bases on a rock to arm the shells. Then, he alternately hurled shells and fired his rifle, generating a fusillade so withering that it forced the attackers to withdraw. 'Despite the protests of his comrades, and bleeding profusely from severe shrapnel wounds, he made his way to his company commander to report the action,' the citation reads. Beauford killed 25 of the enemy that morning. He destroyed several machine guns and mortars, acts that saved many American lives. His efforts 'single-handedly neutralized a serious threat to the company's flank,' the citation reads. It wasn't Beauford's only medal for heroic service. He was also given the Bronze Star. That followed combat on Leyte in the Philippines in 1944. Under heavy enemy fire, he'd crossed open terrain to reach two wounded soldiers. He'd pulled the men to safety until litter bearers could evacuate them. For wounds suffered, he also received two Purple Hearts. Most of the many people Beauford knew in Monterey County knew nothing of all this. Todd Meyer of Aromas, for example. He's a family friend. Meyer was unaware of Beauford's combat background for a long time. 'When I found out, I just really appreciated what he did,' Meyer said. 'It is so impressive. 'You look at what happened to him, and you go, 'Wow!' People had no idea.' Beauford's grandson is Golden Anderson, head football coach, athletic director and a teacher at Carmel High School. Golden remembers his grandfather as slightly shorter than average but with a great sense of humor, a kind man who did magic tricks and dispensed sound guidance to a young boy growing up. 'When I was a child, I knew he'd gotten the Medal of Honor, but he didn't brag about it,' Golden said. 'The older I get the more I realize all he did and the more I appreciate him. He gave back locally, too.' After the war, Beauford taught the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Purdue University. He came west to teach infantry and mortar skills at Fort Ord and stayed on. In the early 1950s, he was promoted to second lieutenant and given medical retirement due to his war wounds. Soon, Beauford was a co-owner of Anderson's Floor and Wall in Seaside. He engaged in public service, too, serving two terms as a Seaside city councilman and two as Seaside mayor. He was a Monterey County supervisor and spent a year as chairman. 'A true citizen-soldier,' James said. Beauford and two others had bought a 1,200-acre ranch near Fort Hunter Liggett, which evolved into a second home. The family lived there from 1967 to 1988. Then Beauford's wife, Phyllis, developed breast cancer. Beauford, himself, suffered emphysema. He needed treatment for health problems related to his battlefield wounds. To be closer to medical care, the couple moved into the River Road house. There were other events linked to Beauford's status as a Medal of Honor recipient. The wing of a new educational building at Fort McCoy's Army Reserve Readiness Training Center in Beauford's native Wisconsin was named after him, given his 'citizen-soldier' status. Beauford's dress Army uniform and photos of him are there in a glass case. In Soldiers Grove, also in Wisconsin, a five-acre park on the banks of the Kickapoo River is named the Beauford T. Anderson Memorial Park. A marble monument honors him. In 1942, Beauford joined the Army in Soldiers Grove. Perhaps the only other Medal of Honor recipient from Monterey County has been Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, who led the famed raid over Tokyo. Doolittle, who lived in Pebble Beach, died in 1993 at age 96. Beauford died in 1996. Phyllis died shortly after. The two are buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The Arlington burial of his parents was impressive, James recalled. Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stood in attendance. The service involved the Army Band and the Army Chorus and the reverent cadence of an Army honor guard. Four busloads of Pentagon officers, their brass highly polished, paid their tribute to Beauford. Back in 1989, The Salinas Californian asked Beauford about the Medal of Honor. 'When they honor me or any Medal of Honor recipient, or veteran, it's showing respect to anyone who has served his country to help preserve freedom,' he said then. 'Freedom does not come easy.'

Louis Augustine Salazar pleaded innocent in a Salinas courtroom for arraignment on Wednesday for the 1977 cold-case murder of 86-year-old Teressie Edna White in her Aromas home.

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Pro cyclist Andy Jacques-Maynes [Cal Giant/Specialized] of Corralitos won the elite men's division for the 2011-12 season of the Central Coast Cyclocross Series with 245 points.

The Aromas Grange Hall is planning to host a number of country/folk musical acts as part of its 2012 concert series The Aromas Grange is the community centerpiece of Aromas which, despite its small size, is part of Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the quake hit 4 miles from Watsonville, Pajaro, and Aromas.

One of the West's most enduring symbols is fading like a red-hot branding iron cools to ashen gray.

Ever wonder about growing an avocado tree in your yard? It's a little more complicated than you might think.

The fire broke out about 4 a.m. when an ember from a wood stove in the kitchen escaped, said North County fire Division Chief Doug McCoun.

One of the West's most enduring symbols is fading like a red-hot branding iron cools to ashen gray.