Battle of the Bulge Veteran Loves to Travel by Airplane or Motorcycle

At 85 years young, Lonie Mullin is a self-made traveling man.

When Lonie grew up near Yreka, California his future was not so clear. World War II was on the horizon and like so many young men of this period; he started his day long before the first school bell rang.

A typical morning for him meant milking 85 cows on his father's farm or helping out a neighbor on their farm. Eventually his schooling was interrupted with a draft notice from Uncle Sam and after basic training, Lonie was sent into battle on the front lines in the Battle of the Bulge. For those that don't remember, with over 19,000 Americans killed, the Battle of the Bulge is widely considered to be the single largest and bloodiest battle that American forces experienced in World War II.

Lonie entered WWII in January 1945, approximately one month after the Germans attacked through the Ardennes Forrest and the Battle of the Bulge began. Maybe it was his small stature, but the Army decided to make Lonie a scout with the 2nd infantry division.

At this time of the war, the Germans were being driven back into their heartland and as a scout for F Company, it was Lonie's job to search out and find the enemy. Find them he did and he had many close calls and several skirmishes with the Germans. Fighting in the Ardennes Forrest was particularly scary when on one occasion one of Hitler's buzz bombs landed a mere 1/8 mile away.

Lonie chased the Germans through the Siegfried lines riding on American tanks but he continued to chase the enemy on foot, on skis or even on snow shoes. Mostly he just chased them. One day after close contact with the Germans, Lonie discovered two holes in the back of his helmet. A bullet had passed in and out the back of his helmet barely missing his head.

After the war, Lonie married his wife Eva and had two children in the Silicon Valley of California. The GI bill enabled him to enroll in correspondence school and using the old system of slow mail, Lonie studied hard. Through his diligent effort and with Eva's help Lonie became an architect, a building contractor, a civil engineer, a general contractor and eventually an engineering contractor. With Eva as his bookkeeper their business thrived in the Mt View/Palo Alto area of California.

During his adult life, Lonie discovered a love of motorcycles and motorcycle touring. Many cyclists never wear out a machine with 35,000 to 40,000 miles but Lonie's gone through eleven motorcycles and traveled over 400,000 miles on two wheels. He says he loves traveling through Texas because it takes him two days.

Eventually Eva and Lonie closed Mullin Construction about 20 years ago. Retirement does not seem to slow Lonie down very much.

He says he got tired of washing windows after retiring, so one day he decided to take an introductory flight lesson in a small airplane. One flight was all it took and four months later he passed his written and flight test to become a private pilot and has been flying ever since.

Now four airplanes later, you can still see Lonie ride into the airport on his Goldwing motorcycle on the way to his hanger. He might be going to Palm Springs to see his daughter or he might just be doing a circuit around the airport. To Lonie, it does not matter, traveling is more important than the destination.