Part 1 of 2 - By Sammy LaProto
The phone rang early that Sunday morning in December 1941.
Theodore Grizzell wasn’t expecting his boss to call from the Ascot Speedway in Southgate and he certainly wasn’t expecting the news he delivered: the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.
The longtime Madera resident, now 88, was one of 67 WWII veterans who were aboard the Central Valley Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., last week. He was joined by fellow Madera residents, James Turner, 91, and Adolfo Gutierrez, 89, who also recalled the shock of learning the nation was at war.
The excursion was a three-day event for Grizzell and the other veterans, and among the stops were the WWII Memorial, the U.S. Marines Iwo Jima Memorial, and a ceremony marking the changing of the guard at the Arlington National Cemetery...