John Loomis

BORN:  February 17, 1926

BRANCH: USMC

DIED: April 23, 2006

Walk into the Crow Bar at Camp Hamilton Veterans Memorial Park and take a close look at the east wall. Now, look for a picture of a Marine wearing a lion’s hat. Yes, an actual kid’s Halloween lion hat, complete with a snout brim. At one time, this picture included the caption - “Loomis on recon.” 

John Loomis joined the Marines on his seventeenth birthday in 1944. He was deployed to Okinawa in its deadliest month. As John collected Marine bodies on the beach, he was shot. 

Years later, the medic who took care of him tracked John down and asked, “Have you received your Purple Heart?” By this time, John was very good friends with Camp Hamilton founder Glenn Denton. When the Marine Corps contacted John about a formal presentation of his Purple Heart, John said, “Ahh, just give it to Glenn Denton in Bakersfield.” 

John and Glenn met when Sergeant Major Leland D. “The Crow” Crawford ordered active-duty Denton and two other Marines to attend a Bodfish campout at John Loomis’s ranch. 

The 32,000-acre ranch in Arroyo Grande became the home of Marines in the 1st Marine Division Association (FMDA) in the 1960s. Members of the FMDA had fun parachuting from planes onto the Loomis meadow before getting a drink at “The Last Chance Saloon.” The western town on John’s ranch also had an armory and an opera house that fit 100 people. 

John Loomis was a member of the Bodfish Chapter of the FDMA. He drove group members in his F150 truck to many events, including the Bodfish Bi-Annual Parade. John even taught the younger generation the Bodfish handshake, which mimicked a rancher’s hand being inserted into a cow to determine if she is pregnant. Gently insert your hand (slide across your friend’s arm) and twist to see if the cow is “open” or if she is pregnant. Yes, read those last two sentences a second time to digest that information. Go ahead. 

The World War II veteran loved traveling to Kern County. One day, John and Glenn were in Kernville when John decided that he wanted to collect acorns. 

“Why?” asked Glenn. 

“You have a ranch full of acorn trees.” 

“True,” replied John, “but I want Kern River Acorn trees.” 

John and Glenn collected acorns that day. Next, John took them to his Tar Springs Ranch and planted them in small containers. As the acorns grew, John moved the saplings to larger containers. John spent two years growing those acorns. He then took those acorns-turned-tree-saplings to Camp Hamilton. Each time John or a camp volunteer moved the sapling trees to larger containers, a few died - until there were just six trees. Then three. 

When John Loomis died in 2006 at eighty years old, we planted the very acorn tree he raised from seed. That acorn tree now bears the name of the World War II veteran. Who has the other two surviving acorn trees? They belong to Howard Bales and another Camp Hamilton veteran. 

Take a walk to the Bodfish section of Camp Hamilton. Sit on the grass, a swing, or a bench as you enjoy the exact shade that John Loomis grew from seed.