By John Montesano
The Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club has named John Oleson the March 2022 Herschel Luckinbill Veteran of the Month recipient.
John Oleson was born September 12, 1944, in Aurora, Ill.. In 1948, when his mother died, his father sent John and his older brother to Mooseheart to live. John’s younger brother was an infant and lived with an aunt and uncle. When John’s father remarried in 1952, the family was reunited in Aurora. John was graduated from West Aurora High School in 1962. He enlisted in the Navy August 1, 1963. His rating was FT: Fire Control Technician. His job: maintaining the Mark 68 GFCS, a 5” gun using computerized systems, to control targeting of guns against surface ships, aircraft, and shore targets. John attended boot camp, FTA, and FTC schools at Naval Station Great Lakes. In early 1965, he joined the fleet in San Diego, Calif. assigned to the USS King (DLG-10). He was first deployed in April 1965 to Gulf of Tonkin, South Vietnam. The King’s main mission was participating in air-sea rescue work.
She returned to San Diego in late1965. John went back to Great Lakes for FTC school. January 15, while at Great Lakes, he was married to Donna. He knew Donna in high school. They had a son, Scott, in 1963 while John was training at Great Lakes, but did not get married. In July 1966, John received orders for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash.. His new ship, USS Jouett (DLG/CG-29) was being built and he was to oversee the installation of the Mark 68 GFCS. In August 1966, John packed up their Volkswagen and drove a pregnant Donna and Scott to Bremerton. Donna was in a Bremerton hospital four days after their arrival, and gave birth to their son, Jay, August 11, 1966. Jouett was commissioned December 3, 1966 and was his home port at Naval Base San Diego.
Again, John packed up the Volkswagen and drove to San Diego with Donna and their two sons. Upon completion of fitting out in February 1967, Jouett was assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, her home port, San Diego. John was deployed three times to the Gulf of Tonkin, through 1970. His mission was the same as his previous deployment on the King. One of these deployments was extended when, on the return voyage from Vietnam, the small carrier force of which Jouett was a part, was diverted toward North Korea in support of the U.S. involvement in the USS Pueblo incident. Once released from this duty, they returned to San Diego. On the way back, when their group crossed the Equator at the International dateline, an initiation rite was performed, which commemorates this crossing. Upon completion, John’s status went from Pollywog (before initiation) to, in this case, Golden Shellback.
Because John wanted to be involved with his sons’ lives, he declined an offer of a promotion and favorable duty if he extended his Navy career. He was honorably discharged on August 2, 1970 and returned to Aurora. He attended Waubonsee Community College and University of Illinois from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in forestry December 1973. Because of a bad recession, jobs were scarce. John had been working for West Aurora School District and, in need of a job, stayed on as a mechanic and eventually was director of transportation for 14 years until 1998. After two years driving buses for Head Start, John began work for Illinois Department of Transportation in 2000. He retired in 2012. John and Donna have four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. John said he enjoyed his time in the Navy, but has no regrets about leaving to be with his children.