Name: Paul Aguirre
Born and Raised: Bakersfield, CA but raised in Wasco, CA
Married to: Was married for 42 years
Paul graduated from high school and then joined the Marines in June1969. MCRD in San Diego, Next a few months In Camp Lejeune North Carolina. 1970 February sent to Vietnam and assigned to the 5th Marines Echo Company. Did eleven months in County. Awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with a “V”. Afterwards, he moved back to Wasco / Bakersfield, Ca until moving to Rancho Bernardo in 2019. Has lived here for the past 5 years.
Children (and their names): Paul has 2 sons. David, age 48, lives in Bakersfield, CA. He works as an electrical engineer with an oil company. Steve, age 46, lives in Arroyo Grande, CA and works as a computer analysis.
Occupation: Right after leaving the service, he worked at the US Postal Service beginning in 1972. He worked there for 35 years and then retired. Since retiring he has had many other jobs. One was working for Garda Armored Truck Security, picking up and delivering money from the banks. Most interesting was when he was sent to LA that had the large holding of money {Federal Reserve Bank of Los Angeles}. – There was a large elevator that took the entire truck down 4 floors. When the doors opened he saw that this building held a massive amount of money, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in exceptionally large wired cages. It was amazing and he never knew it was there. He also learned that money is very dirty to work with!! Paul also worked for Mosquito Vector Control in Bakersfield, CA. for eight years.
Major Jobs: (noted above) US Postal Service, Garda Armored Security, Bakersfield Mosquito Vector Control
Why you decided to join the Knights? Paul was a parishioner St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Bakersfield, CA. He was an usher for the church. In having conversations with these fellow ushers, he discovered that they were also members of the Knights of Columbus. So he joined that Chapter. He started in 1992 as a Knight. He has been a Fourth Degree Knight for the past year and is part of the Color Guard these last 6 months.
He joined the KOC due to all involvement they had in the community. One thing in particular he remembered at St. Elizabeth Ann church, is that they had three large stone BBQ Island pits in the back of the church. They would have beautiful steak dinners that were a huge fund raiser for the community.
What kept you in the Knights: He enjoys being a Knight because they are involved in so many things. He loves attending and helping at the Fish Fries. A Night to Remember is a very awesome event and he helps to organize and work this event. Most amazing, is that the Knights go out to see people in need, especially if they are in the hospital, needed rides to the hospital or take people for treatment. Also that they were a helping hand in financing a fellow knight.
What is one thing that your friends probably don’t know about you? While serving during the Vietnam War, he walked in the Valley of Death for 11 months. It was not the best time in his life. Paul states that he went over as a young boy but came back as a man. He had seen and done so bad things, horrific things. He recalls that every day he would be walking the line and not knowing if he would live or die that day. He added that you would get so immune to it that you were not afraid of death anymore.
Favorite Hobby: Paul’s favorite hobbies are cooking and hiking. He loves to cook anything especially his mother’s old recipes that he grew up with. He also enjoys cooking Italian, Chinese or just anything interesting. His cooking skills are self-taught. Paul loves to go hiking in open spaces like in Torrey Pines. In Kern County he would go into the Southern Sierras and do solo hiking. Has been up in June Lake backpacking where it snowed and his camp site without tents.
If you got to start over again after graduating from school, what would you change? Paul advised that he would not do anything different. He had a lot of right turns and a lot of wrong turns in life. But clearly states that his path brought him his two sons and they are the best thing that ever happened to him.
Did you travel much? Alaskan cruise in 1998 ten days. In 2006 he took a Mediterranean Cruise to France, Italy, Cecily, and Spain. This was a 14 day cruise. He saw a lot of churches, how they made olive oil and the old fashioned Italian cookery. He went to Rome to see the cathedrals, the monasteries and the Colosseum. He also saw Pompey. Each place had a full day to visit each location. Another vacation was visiting Portugal to visit a friend of his. They toured up and down the coast. He advised that the Portuguese live much differently than we do. Interesting fact is that when they bury their dead, they only stay in the ground for 6 months. They reuse the cemetery plots over and over. (They will pull up the bones but not sure what they do with them).
How long have you been a Parishioner of St. Gabriel’s? He has been a parishioner of St. Gabriel for five years.
Extra– Other volunteer work Paul is a member of is The Purple Hearts as he is a Purple Heart recipient from Vietnam. A medal awarded for injuries that is not by choice. He does cherish it the best he can because he earned it. This organization will attend funerals for veterans who have no family members or friends to attend the service. They attend these services to honor these veterans. Recently he was asked to assist a family who had an uncle who was buried in a city cemetery in a pauper’s grave. The family wanted him moved to a military cemetery for a proper burial. This person was a veteran and a recipient of a Purple Heart. Paul worked with the local government which was a lot of work. After working on this matter, this Veteran was buried on December 6, 2023 at Miramar National Cemetery with full honors and a large group of veterans attended to see him off. The Fourth Degree Knights Color Guard were also there. To top it off, there was a Medal of Honor recipient who attended this service to give his regards to the family. We were very proud of that.
How many hours have you volunteered over the year? An Average of two hundred hours for the Military Order Of the Hearts and The Knights of Columbus.