Longtime resident Herb Spradlin was buried with military honors at Jones Point Cemetery April 9. Spradlin died at home April 6 with wife Lemmie at his side. He had multiple health issues and had been ill several years. He was 86.

Spradlin came to Haines in 1972 after retiring from a military career that included duty in World War II, Korea and the early stages of Vietnam. This week friends remembered him as an enthusiastic optimist who embraced the Alaskan outdoors with good humor and little fear. He especially liked to hunt.

 “If I would have went up Monday and told him to heal up, we’re going hunting, he probably wouldn’t have died,” said Dave Stickler. Spradlin owned a 75-foot commercial halibut boat with the Stickler family, as well as the Thunderbird Motel with his second wife, Bea Corrington, and several rental properties.

He built a riverboat Stickler described as unsightly. “Aesthetics meant nothing to Herb. Functional was good enough.”

 “I’ve seen Herb out in the pouring rain, for a couple of days, with no gear or anything, and he was happy,” said Erwin Hertz.

Once Spradlin shot a moose in bear country, and asked Hertz and another friend to help pack it out the next day. After leaving the dressing site, Spradlin returned to get the rack he’d left behind.

“He went back in there, where bears had been feeding on the gut pile, without a rifle, and I just knew there’d be a bunch of yelling and growling when that bear got Herb, but he came back with the antlers. He was either very brave or very stupid, but that was Herb.He was one of a kind.”

Stickler recalled snowmachining along a trapline at 20 below. Spradlin wore only  a stocking cap and light clothing and his nose turned white. “I said, ‘Your nose is froze’ and he took his glove off and stuck a finger on it, and he pulled the skin right off . It looked like a red button. All Herb said was, ‘Oh God, this is gonna hurt.’”

Stickler said Spradlin shared many stories, especially the bombing of Dresden, which he participated in from the top turret seat of a B-17 G bomber. “Herb said it was ugly, terrible.”

Herbert Victor Spradlin was born in Jerome, Idaho May 22, 1923 to Otha and Bessie May Spradlin. He grew up with four brothers, all deceased, on a ranch near Augusta, Mont. “Herb used to say, ‘The only thing I ever saw as a kid was the ass end of mules.’ I think they nearly starved to death,” Stickler said.

Spradlin joined the Army Air Corps the day after his 18^th birthday, on May 23, 1941 and was trained as a flight engineer and aerial gunner. World War II began months later. He served in England, France, and North Africa.

Hertz said, “I loved Herb, but I’d be scared to go up in the planes he worked on. He was a Montana farm boy who made do with bailing wire and chewing gum.”

Hertz said that a bomber Spradlin had been a mechanic on ran into engine trouble on a flight from England over Germany. The crew was forced to dump the bombs in order to limp safely back. They found an empty field, and dropped everything, “Right on top of a secret underground ammo bunker, blowing the thing sky high. Herb said those guys got all kinds of citations, so maybe it was meant to be.”

After the war, Spradlin returned to the farm in Montana, and joined the Montana Air National Guard. He saw active duty again in Korea, and remained in the service as part of the Strategic Air Command, traveling frequently. He was married, had two children and was divorced. 

In 1959 he was sent to Udorn, Thailand to support air operations in Laos. When he retired he was a master sergeant and had earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. He traveled to Alaska and embraced life here. He operated a gold dredge near Chicken, and went beluga whale hunting in Cook Inlet with friend and Iditarod founder Joe Reddington, who used the meat for sled dog food, Stickler said.

“The guy was definitely one of my heroes,” Stickler said.

Terry Pardee conducted Spradlin’s burial and memorial. He noted that Spradlin served as commander of the local American Legion and was instrumental in its reorganization in 1991 and return to solvency. “He was very highly thought of,” Pardee said.

Following the death of his second wife, Spradlin married Lemmie Wright, in October 2002. “Lemmie was really good to Herb. She kept him alive with herbs and things, and turned his life around. She was amazing,” Hertz said.

In addition to Lemmie, son Bruce of Indiana and daughter Sherry of Michigan, five grandchildren and four great- grandchildren survive Spradlin.