Sean C. Morgan
When Tom Hyer, longtime owner and operator of G&H Logging, was 17 years old, he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Navy.
It was a time of war, and many others did the same. In recent years, School District 55 has been awarding diplomas to veterans such as Hyer, who were never able to complete high school.
Friday night, he joined his grandson, Quin Wise, in receiving a diploma at Sweet Home High School’s graduation ceremony.
“I was eating breakfast with Tom one morning at the Skyline,” said SHHS Construction Trades teacher Dustin Nichol. “We were talking football and what he did in high school.”
Hyer said his high school education was cut short, and Nichol learned that Hyer hadn’t graduated because he was serving during World War II.
“I said, ‘You’re going to this year, with your grandson,’” Nichol said.
“It’s pretty special,” Wise said. “‘Unique’ is the word I’ve been using. I feel very special to be a part of such a unique experience.”
Hyer was part of the Class of 1943, he said. The United States went to war Dec. 7, 1941.
“There was a war on,” Hyer said. “I wanted to get in and contribute.”
Hyer enlisted on April 6, 1942. Serving in the Navy, he was an aviation torpedo man. He served in various locations around the Atlantic Ocean, including South America, Trinidad and Florida.
He flew in many torpedo planes on training flights, which carried a crew of three. He also spent time on anti-submarine patrols, which was the closest he got to battle.
He left the service on April 21, 1946.
“I worked there in Florida for a while, on a seagoing tug,” Hyer said. “I had the job before I was discharged.”
The tug salvaged many ships, he said. Often they had run aground.
“Charts weren’t nearly as good in those days,” he said.
After about a year on the tug, he returned to Sweet Home eight or nine months after leaving the Navy.
In Sweet Home, he went to work in logging and formed G&H Logging.
Others, such as his brother, Jim Hyer, left the military and earned GEDs. Jim Hyer went on to college on the GI Bill.
“It didn’t seem that important to me,” Tom Hyer said. “Dustin Nichol started all this. He thought it would be kind of neat to graduate with my grandson.
“It seems to stir up a little notoriety. I’ll probably hang it on the wall in the office, put it with my discharge papers.”
Wise, his grandson, is the son of John and Melissa Wise, Hyer’s daughter. Wise’s brother, Zane, just graduated from Willamette University with a degree in exercise science.
Quin Wise played football and wrestled all four years, lettering in each sport twice. He was named Honorable Mention All-League in football as a senior. He received the Dick Reynolds Coach’s Award twice. With David Skeen, he was the Booster Club Boy Athlete of the Year.
He was involved in the newspaper for the past two years, he said, and it was a lot of fun. He also is working on playing the guitar and mandolin and is trying to bum a banjo from his grandfather as a graduation gift.
“I’m on to actual adulthood now – or so I think,” said a happily finished Wise. “I was ready. I have been ready for about six months.”
Wise plans to attend the University of Oregon in the fall, but said he won’t decide on a major till he gets there.
“Deciding what to do with the rest of my life is difficult at 18,” he said. He is interested in journalism, and he shares an interest with his mother in business and marketing.
Wise and Hyer are both members of a Sweet Home pioneer family. Hyer has taken his sons through Gilliland Cemetery and shown them the names of their ancestors recorded there.
When he sees places like Sankey Park, Wise said, “I’m like, yeah, I’m a descendent of the Sankey family.”