Veteran Rich Handy displays his Bronze Star medal at the Lake Riverside Estates Veteran’s Pavilion. Anza Valley Outlook/Courtesy photo
Lake Riverside Estates resident and local insurance expert Rich Handy is known to be helpful and generous, but few people know that he is an Army veteran who was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War right out of university.“I was drafted into the Army the day after my last final exam at UCLA in June 1968,” Handy said. “I went to L.A. for my physical and was immediately bussed to Fort Ord, California, for basic training.”Handy attended advanced individual training in engineering, where he learned about building bridges for tanks and supply trucks to cross obstacles such as rivers.“I then had to make a choice of going to Germany as a noncommissioned officer – sergeant – or go to Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. If I chose the OCS option, I was surel
