- Date Of Birth: October 18, 1937
- Date Of Death: May 29, 2021
- State: Florida
Herminio Hernandez, age 83, of Freeport, FL passed away on May 29, 2021, from diabetic complications at the Superior Residence Assisted Care Facility in Niceville, FL. He was born to Santa Velez and Herminio Bernabé Hernandez on Oct. 18, 1937 in Isabela, Puerto Rico, the oldest of six children. After graduating from the Lateran University in Rome, Italy, he joined the US Air Force. His first assignment after weapon’s control training school was to the 692nd radar site in the little town of Baudette, MN.
After Texas, Herm and his family moved to Cape Cod and Otis AFB where he flew in the EC-121 radar planes as part of the U.S. early warning system. Herm volunteered to go to Vietnam for a year. While in Vietnam, Herm flew in the EC-47 and was stationed at Pleiku Air Base and Tan Sun Nhut Air Base in Saigon. He served with distinction and survived enemy fire while flying and during the Tet Offensive while living in Officer Housing off-base in Saigon in 1968. After returning from Vietnam, his next assignment took the family to the Panama Canal Zone for four and half years where he flew in the HC-130 doing rescue missions throughout Central and South America. Herm drove his family of five from the Canal Zone to his new assignment at McClellan AFB in Sacramento, CA in 1973 via the Pan American Highway. He continued to fly in HC-130s for search and rescue missions. Five years later, they were back in the Canal Zone where Herm became director of the USAFSO Rescue Coordination Center.
In 1981 Eglin AFB, Florida was the last assignment Herm had while in the military.
Herm enjoyed sailing, painting, and reading in his spare time.
