Printed in The Bakersfield Californian
�May 29, 2000
By KERRY CAVANAUGH�
�

In 1978, when Glenn Denton bought a 10-acre parcel of land off
Lerdo Highway between oil fields and farms, it was an investment.
Today, the land is worth more than money in Denton's eyes.�
It is Camp Hamiltom: a playing field, park, shooting range, and bar for former military men and women.

It's also a memorial for veterans, a place where soliders
lost in war are remembered and honored.
"This place is all about veterans doing things for veterans,"
Denton said. " We're doing this for our fallen comrades."

Camp Hamilton is still work in progress.
A slatted wood and wire fence surrounds much of the park.
Recently planted trees bend in the wind and a few grees weeds
poke through the dried grass.
But there are new projects completed every week, with the
sweat of voluteers and the donations of local businesses�
and military offices.� A 72-foot flag pole holds American
and prisoner of war flags that snap in the wind.
Picnic tables and patios dot the property.� The Crow Bar saloon
has a fresh coat of army-green paint.�
Denton, a 27-year Marine Corps veteran, bought�
the land when his first son was born.
� "My dad told me years ago to buy land," Denton said. "It's�
�the only thing they don't make anymore."
Denton was a Marine recruiter in Bakersfield at the time.�
By 1980, he had moved to his next assignment, recruiting in�
� Montana. But he made a few trips back to Bakersfield to check�
on his land and begin slowly building the camp.�
Denton, along with friends and volunteers used to average a�
�project a year. They'd plant trees or put in cement patios.�
�The land slowly appeared less like a barren field and more like camp.

Denton can walk the perimeter of the camp and talk about�
every tree dedicated in a veteran's honor.�
In a corner, near the southern border of the camp, is a thin,�
frail tree Denton dedicated to Cecil Lambert, the first�
soldier he saw killed in the Vietnam War Aug. 12, 1969.
The war was Denton's first permanent assignment after he�
joined the Marine Corps in 1968.
During eight days in August 1969, 122 marines were killed.�
Denton intends to name 122 trees in honor of those fallen marines.
There is already a tree named for William Carl Adams, the�
first soldier killed in that eight-day battle.�

Eight soldiers, including Denton, volunteered to recover the�
dead bodies of four soldiers.�
"We referred to ourselves as the Kool-Aid kids," Denton said.�
"In order to motivate ourselves to go up that hill, another�
officer carried a packet of Kool-Aid in his helmet, and we mixed�
that up in a canteen and passed it around.
"It was a high better than bourbon and we went out to do our job."

Denton and another soldier, Richard Shelton, worked together�
carrying Adams' body back to camp. But on the way back,�
something went wrong. "He (Shelton) went into shock.
I didn't recognize it," Denton said.�
Shelton later walked into an ambush and was shot in the head.�
Denton was just a few feet away.
"From that day, those that survived said we would return and�
never let these people be forgotten," Denton said.�
"That was probably the real beginning of Camp Hamilton."

Red arrow signs are scattered throughout the camp, inscribed with names like�
Dharan (Saudi Arabia) and Inchon (Korea), cities once� well known to veterans.
"When you were in another country during a war, there were�
signs saying, �this many miles to Los Angeles,'" Denton said.�
At this camp, full of memorials and momentos, the signs are�
another reminder of what these former soldiers share.�
World War II veterans trade stories with veterans of�
Operation Desert Storm. They play dominos. They gossip.

Sometimes recruiters bring enlistees to the camp before they�
head to boot camp. It's a history lesson for them as well as�
an introduction into the comaraderie of the military.�
"This place kind of ties together the whole military, from�
the kids going to boot camp to the old veterans who come down�
here to socialize," Denton said.

It is also a place where veterans take care of veterans.�
Denton has acquired a handful of campers that can be used as�
emergency housing for homeless veterans. There are no doors�
on any buildings, so people can come and go anytime. Social�
service agencies know they can call and Denton will find a�
roof, even a temporary one, for a veteran.�
One veteran, looking for a short-term home, asked if he could�
stay in a bunker on the camp. Denton secured the materials and�
the veteran built the bunker and it's still there today.�
"Some guys get flashbacks just looking in here," Denton said�
recently while standing in the dark, spiderweb-filled bunker.�

Since retiring in 1995, Denton sometimes puts in 40-hour weeks�
at Camp Hamilton. He spends about $600 a month to keep the camp running.

Come here any day of the week, Denton said, and you'll see folks sitting under�
a tree talking, playing a game at the horseshoe�
pit or sipping a beer down at the Crow Bar.�
It's a pleasant atmosphere.
Though there is still work to be done, Denton is satisfied with Camp Hamilton.

"I'm a man of my word. I said I would honor those 122 soldiers, and I did.
"I love to watch the guys walk by the trees and read the signs.�
A lot of these kids died in war. They didn't have kids.�
Their parents pass away and there is no one to remember them.
"Here, they will be remembered."