Hometown Heroes - Herbert Ryder

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Herbert Ryder was just 11-years-old when the Louisiana War Maneuvers made its way to Oberlin, Louisiana. It wasn’t long before Herbert’s father told his family about the start of WWII.

“Dad came in and told us about the war,” recalled Ryder. “The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and we were going to war and it wasn’t going to be very nice. It was going to be hard. Hard on us and everybody.”

Ryder remembers his friend Bernie Karam playing taps at the funerals of Allen parish boys who died in the war.

“When he played taps, that was the end of it. The people around the graveyard, around the casket, they just couldn’t hardly take it. Tears were flowing.”

Years later, Ryder was drafted by the Army and sent to the Korean War. He was a medic on the front line, sending wounded soldiers to MASH hospitals.

“We’d process them through. Patch them up if they need it right away, and all of them did. Then we’d send them to what they called a clearing company. Then a helicopter would come pick them up and take them to a MASH hospital.”

After the war, Ryder came home to his banking job at the Calcasieu Marine National Bank, where he retired.

Ryder’s girlfriend wouldn’t marry him before he left for Korea. She was afraid he would come back alive. He did return, of course, and married his sweetheart. They remain married today.

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