Fallon's Wohle remembered as advocate for soldiers, students

Not only was he a soldier who mentored younger soldiers in both the Army and Nevada Army National Guard, but Henry “Hank” Wohle of Fallon also provided a guiding hand and wisdom to the scores of high-school and college students in his industrial arts classes and U.S. Navy Sea Cadets who learned more about life and the military way of “doing things.”

The 76-year-old Wohle died unexpectedly at his small ranch east of Fallon on June 3. A service is planned for Sept. 7, but location and time have not been finalized.

During a military career that stretched four decades, Wohle taught in the Reserve Officers Training Corps programs at the Reno and Las Vegas campuses of the University of Nevada and served in numerous roles with the 422nd Expeditionary Signal Battalion in Reno, beginning when the Nevada Guard unit drilled at the old Reno armory at the Washoe County Fairgrounds. The Pittsburg, California, native, the son of educators, also deployed to Iraq for a year in 2007.

Additionally, Wohle enjoyed working with teenagers and adults in an education setting. In addition to serving the military, Wohle also taught industrial arts in Fairbanks, Alaska, Washington state, and then back in Nevada’s  Churchill, Lyon, Nye and Washoe counties.

For more than five years, Wohle taught welding at WNC and developed a successful program at the Fallon campus. The highlight of his teaching occurred when seven of his students earned eight American Welding Society certifications, the blue ribbon certifications in the United States. At the time, Wohle said he felt confident his students were qualified to find any welding job.

Wohle also worked in the construction trades industry as a general contractor and spent some time before his military and teaching career working in the casinos at Lake Tahoe and Reno.

A MENTOR TO SEA CADETS

Dave Johnson, Wohle’s executive officer with the U.S. Navy Sea Cadets based in Fallon and Fernley, said he was stunned when he first heard of Wohle’s death.

“I have a lot of respect for him,” said Johnson, who’s now transitioning into the commanding officer’s role. “I appreciate all he did.”

During the past 12 years, Johnson saw both sides of Wohle, a persistent hard-charging soldier and a father-like figure to scores of young Sea Cadets age 10 to 18 wanting to learn more about the military.

“He never turned a kid away,” Johnson said.

Wohle and Johnson first met in 2012 when they were both taking a class at WNC Fallon. Johnson became hooked on the program and wanted to help. After each man learned the other’s military lingo, they formed a bond.

“We became pretty good friends,” Johnson said. “We went hunting a couple of times and also enjoyed getting away and relaxing.”

Being military men, they enjoyed listening to the stories and developing camaraderie among their peer groups.

“Something we really enjoyed was sitting back and talking about our careers,” Johnson recalled.

By combining their experience and every day knowledge, Johnson said they enjoyed teaching the cadets and forging a way for them to look at the world around them differently. Another early bond brought them together. Their daughters knew each other from Churchill County Middle School.

Yet, the one thing Johnson remembers is Wohle’s tenacity.

“He did not like taking no for an answer,” Johnson said. “He would find a way to change their minds.”

Churchill County High School senior and Sea Cadet Tyler Huckaby has known Wohle for years. Although Huckaby’s voice grew softer at times or cracked talking about his commander, he and the other Sea Cadets call Wohle an amazing role model, one who was a teacher outside the classroom.

“He taught us to be a good person,” Huckaby said before shifting to Wohle’s role as a leader and teacher.

Wesley Bowman, another cadet, echoed many of Huckaby’s thoughts.

“I would say he was a great man,” Bowman said. “I tip my hat to him now that he is gone. He was a wonderful person and the man that had the best stories. He was the toughest man I have ever met.”

Bowman said it was an honor for him to be with Wohle.

“He has guided us in the best way possible so if I were to tell him something, I would say ‘Godspeed,’” Bowman added.

Huckaby said Wohle taught the cadets land navigation, marksmanship, and drill and ceremony in addition to history and people. Every year in mid-December, Huckaby and the other cadets drove to Fernley with Wohle and Johnson to participate in the annual Wreaths Across America program that honors the military men and women interred at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery. Huckaby said Wohle wanted them to know about the meaning of service and to learn more about history.

Before the cadets left Fallon, Wohle stressed the need for the cadets to have a clean and proper uniform, a familiar scenario that included the yearly Armed Forces Day parade in Hawthorne.

“Drill and ceremony was a big part of our instruction,” Huckaby explained. “They are two of the things we learned the most about.”

Huckaby said Wohle always talked to the cadets about education and where life would take them.

“He said choose you own route and do what you want to do,” Huckaby remembered.

COMMITTED TO SOLDIERS

Retired Col. Dennis George said Wohle was a dedicated soldier to his country and his state whose personal qualities were evident to those who met him.

“He was committed to the soldiers he served with and would not stop working to accomplish his mission, no matter what obstacles he encountered,” said George, who retired in 2000 after serving as the Nevada Army Guard’s chief of staff.

George, a 1963 Sparks High School graduate, served in Vietnam as an Army helicopter pilot where he was wounded and received the Purple Heart. George and Wohle shared much in common, especially the desire to see an ROTC program established at UNLV.

Their paths crossed in the National Guard when the aviation units were in the signal battalion.

 “He fought long and hard to ensure the ROTC program at UNLV was recognized and chartered to act independently, and eventually that happened,” George said.

Retired Brig. Gen. David McNinch said he also  remembers Wohle’s passion in wanting to start the ROTC program in Las Vegas. McNinch called Wohle one of the least bashful soldiers he met and, at one time, Wohle was particularly close to Brig. Gen. Harry Wald, the former assistant general for the Nevada Army Guard.

“He and Wald attempted to establish an ROTC program at UNLV after Wald left the guard,” McNinch added. “If my memory serves me, Hank was a UNR ROTC instructor at the time.”

McNinch said not too many people knew Wohle had played collegiate football at Nevada. During the late 1960s, Wohle played with All-American and former quarterback Chris Ault who eventually became the team’s head coach in 1976.

“Hank was a formidable-sized individual who was tougher than nails due to his UNR football conditioning,” McNinch remembers. “He usually kept a favorite picture of himself posing with a football as he ran downfield. Great picture as he was blocking and running.”

Wohle parlayed his toughness from the football field to the military, and McNinch oversaw Wohle as commander of the 150th Maintenance Co., in Carson City in the late 1970s. Hank was the detachment commander of a special signal unit assigned to the unit.

“As the detachment commander, Hank was effective and surrounded himself with some of the most competent NCOs (noncommissioned officers) in the guard, ”McNinch said. “Hank loved the military and was always involved in the support of any ventures that he felt would make it better.”

McNinch said Wohle became a good friend of Col. Robert Jackson and recognized his deep knowledge of the Nevada Guard’s structure. McNinch said that knowledge helped Wohle in his career.

“Hank was a laid back kind of guy, but often had the most serious look on his face, like he was carrying the weight of the world,” said retired Lt. Col. Charley Smith, who also served in the signal battalion. “It seemed he was always pontificating something. I typically thought it was something mischievous though because when asked he would just get this crazy grin on his face, and he would light up like he was laughing inside.”

A VARIED LIFE

Wohle made his mark with the Nevada Guard’s 422nd Signal Battalion formerly located near the Reno rodeo grounds on Wells Avenue. During his eight years with the company, Wohle was a radio officer, area signal officer and eventually the executive officer.

“He was my S-3 (training officer)  in 1988 during Natural Team IV,” said retired Col. Joseph Rooney. “He did a good job, always honest.”

Rooney said Wohle assumed a pivotal role during a major communication exercise set in the Plumas National Forest west of Reno. The two-week exercise included 650 signalers, an active-duty Army unit, and the Nevada Air National Guard’s communications section.

The battalion earned the Governor’s Outstanding Unit award for that year.

“He was a committed reservists,” reflected retired Col. David Sarnowski, a Carson City resident. “He was also a teacher at heart. He loved coaching and sports.”

Sarnowski said the troops liked him.

“He wasn’t an overbearing officer,” he added.

Susan Stark, who was married to Wohle for 31 years, first met him during late 1988 after she moved to Nevada and began drilling with the signal battalion. Her first impression of him was that of a hard charger.

“He was larger than life the first time I met him,” she said. “He was solid, stern, the opposite to me. We were made for the long term.”

Smith said Wohle immediately fell “head over heels” when he met Stark.

“He used to tell me she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Indeed,” Smith added.

Stark and Wohle married in 1989 before they moved to Las Vegas where Wohle was UNLV’s deputy professor of Military Science. She said Wohle had proposed over the phone once he received orders to report to Las Vegas.

After that assignment, they moved to Washington, D.C., for three years where Wohle was an action officer with the Department of the Army at the Pentagon. He was director of Information Systems, Command, Control Computers and Communications. After that two-year assignment, Wohle became the Visual Information program manager for the National Guard Bureau in Alexandria, Virginia.

“We came back to Reno (in 1993) where Hank became an ROTC instructor,” she said.

Once his three-year commitment ended, Wohle returned to the Nevada Guard and was an environmentalist for one year and then the EEO, or equal employment officer.

“When I was the Construction and Facilities management officer for the Nevada Guard, Hank worked in the office with me for several of those years (1996-98) doing environmental and minor construction projects,” said retired Lt. Col. Vern Payette. “He was always a pleasure to have around and a lot of help. He had a wealth of experience and knowledge.”

Wohle later became the assistant chief of staff, National Guard Affairs for the 2nd Region ROTC at Fort Knox, Kentucky, for two years.

During those years, they had three daughters — Sierra, Jamee and Lillie. Sierra is a labor delivery nurse at Banner Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon. Jamee followed her father’s footsteps in the U.S. Army and graduated from the ROTC program at the University of Arizona. She currently serves as an officer in the California Army National Guard. Lillie is a cosmetologist and lives in Fallon.

Wohle also had two children from a previous marriage, Danielle and William.

Although he had completed his 20 years in the military which qualified him for retirement, Wohle didn’t want to shed the uniform.

“He crusaded to get deployed,” Stark said. “He was determined to go to war… and he did when he was 60 years old.”

Smith said Wohle loved the Army, more than most people she knew serving.

“He truly wanted to be there — to do his duty and to serve his state and country,” Smith said.

As a retiree recall, Wohle headed to Iraq for a year as the action officer for CJE FUOPS (future operations) Special Action, and his final assignment, also as a retiree recall,  took him to Schofield Barracks Hawaii as the operations officer. Stark accompanied him to Oahu for the two years.

“From Baghdad to Hawaii, That was pretty cool,” Stark said. “We had an amazing time there.”