CLOVIS, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – You’re never too old to do something new for the very first time – and 100-year-old veteran Vern Schmidt is proving just that.
In the span of one week, he celebrated his 100th birthday and released a book. But he didn’t release the book because he needed more reverence; he was already a well-respected American hero. He wanted to swap stories with fellow veterans and share them with the community.
On Friday at the Clovis Memorial Veterans District, dozens gathered, all to hear him speak, and to get a book signed just by him.
“We’re groupies for him,” Linda Scambray and Patricia Powell said.
While most people follow around their favorite band, Scambray and Powell are interested in someone else.
“The first time I heard Vern speak was at the 509 about the boxcar,” they said.
They’ve been following Schmidt, and not because they think he’s some rockstar. They love that he’s a valley veteran.
At 100 years old, Schmidt has just released his first book, filled with his stories and the stories of the people who fought for our freedom alongside him.
“The heroes in my book are the ones who never came home, who paid the ultimate price for the freedom you and I are enjoy today. But they wrote the book. I just. They just use my name,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt said those veterans and his coauthor, Laura Bailey, are the only reasons this book came to be. They became connected through Bailey’s quest to learn more about her grandpa, who was also a veteran.
“I never knew really that he had a war history until they passed away when I was 16 years old,” she said, speaking about her grandfather.
She says writing these stories became meaningful in more ways than one.
“I call him my surrogate grandfather,” she said.
But beyond an unlikely friendship, Bailey and Schmidt said what’s most important is that these stories will get passed down for generations to come.
Vern says it’s hard to write a book everyone will love, and he has this message for whoever buys it.
“I hope you don’t think too bad about it. If you don’t like it, blame that lady right there,” he said, pointing to Bailey.
