Veteran receives diploma from East Valley at 71

Edwin Littlejohn was in the middle of his 10th grade year at North Central High School in 1951 when he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves.

At 17, he thought it would be a good experience.

“It was supposed to be a one weekend a month thing,” said Littlejohn, who is now 71 and lives in Otis Orchards. “But then the Korean conflict came along, and right away they called us into active duty.”

When he returned from serving in the Korean War three years later, he thought it was too late to finish high school.

But he learned Tuesday night that it is really never too late.

With his family and neighbors smiling and snapping pictures the school board presented Littlejohn with his diploma from East Valley High School.

Littlejohn is the first veteran from East Valley to be awarded a diploma under a board policy adopted this school year that allows World War II and Korean War veterans who left school between 1940 and 1955 to get their diplomas.

It follows a state law passed in 2002 and 2003 that allows school districts to issue diplomas to military veterans who left to serve in the nation’s wars more than 50 years ago.

“When he came back, he went to North Central and they wouldn’t give it to him,” said his wife of 25 years, Beverly. “They wouldn’t honor it. So this is pretty neat.”

Littlejohn returned to Spokane in 1953 after an honorable discharge from the Navy. He served two tours of duty aboard the USS Bremerton, a heavy cruiser, and earned several campaign ribbons.

“I thought about going back (to school), but I found it hard to do that,” Littlejohn said.

So he earned his GED – general equivalency degree – and joined the workforce, first working as a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier and at Kaiser Aluminum for several years before taking a job with Grainger Industrial Supply. He retired in 1995.

It wasn’t until recently that an announcement in an East Valley School District newsletter had him thinking about his high school diploma.

Littlejohn has grandchildren and great-grandchildren that attend East Valley schools, and the district put an item in the newsletter looking for veterans who might be interested in taking advantage of the new policy.

His granddaughter, Brittaney Stahlman, is a freshman at EVHS.

“This is pretty different,” Stahlman said of her grandpa’s diploma. She didn’t think her grandpa would be graduating four years behind her.

She said she told some friends about his diploma, and they asked her why he wanted it.

“It’s a good example for the grandkids,” Littlejohn said. “When I didn’t get it earlier, I thought I’d never see it again. It’s been bothering me all these years.”