Veterans, Diabetes and a War Hero
How do you kick diabetes in the butt? Ask a war hero. Our latest project about veterans living with diabetes allows us to interview and conduct research to find particular candidates to interview. We have found veterans from various campaigns, ethnicities and backgrounds. One of our candidates is a true war hero, Brigadier General Cardenas. A life dedicated to serving our country.
In my first series of interviews Cardenas shared his life story starting
as a young boy living in San Diego at the age of five, learning a new language (came from Mexico) and surviving in a time where you had to work hard for everything. Hard work, discipline and a desire to succeed guided his life and career early. As a teenager he worked side-by-side with a group of engineers building gliders. At one point they needed help and he was there to step in and test these gliders. He learned how to fly gliders off of Torrey Pines cliffs. The Gliderport was first established as a soaring site in 1928 and has defined the history of motor less flight. The Gliderport is home to hang gliding, paragliding, scale models and sailplane flight. It’s an absolutely stunning area and I can almost imagine the thrill he must have experienced taking off for the first time.
This thrill became a thirst for flight over the years. In a life-changing moment he enlisted with the California National Guard and became an aviation cadet. He was sent to Twentynine Palms, California to help establish the Army Air Corps Glider School because of his early experience with gliders. He was later assigned to Wright Field, Ohio to become a flight test officer.
In 1944, he flew many mission during WWII under the 506th Bombardment Squadron known as the Flying 8-balls and on March 18th was shot down on the German side of Lake Constance. He swam his way to safety on the Swiss side. After recovering from his injuries he was sent back to the United States to start piloting experimental aircraft. This launched him into a long career of testing aircraft from the Messerschmitt Me 262 to the B-29 Superfortress that launched Captain Chuck Yeager in the supersonic experimental aircraft the Bell X-1.
As I continued to learn more about his military career I started to wonder how he really felt about his late-in life diagnosis of diabetes. Did it bother him? His answer was to take it in stride. He has had so many opportunities and taken them all on with gusto. His diabetes is no different. In fact, it too presents itself as an opportunity. His opportunity to maintain his health. He shared how his main fight was maintaining and losing weight – which came as a bit of a shocker because I came to see him as almost invincible. A war hero with no stop-gates but alas we all have our fights. He too must fight to manage his weight and diabetes. He too must go to the doctors and make the best out of his situation. I discovered that for him, for his success and his ability to work with diabetes in his life he had to have a goal.
As with the rest of his life, a goal or objective, has allowed him to succeed in a big way. A goal keeps hims going during thosetimes when diabetes or his overall health tries to keep him down. He keeps himself active by working towards a common goal. Recently he just completed an eight-year in the making goal – to open up a new national cemetery for veterans in San Diego. It was a major undertaking but no doubt that the commitment from him and others saw it through. My veteran, my hero, my interviewee with diabetes, Brigadier General Cardenas is an inspiration to us all.
