Life-long Coltonite Phillip Colunga Honored by Family & City for His Service

COLTON >> A hard-working, life-long Coltonite Phillip Colunga was honored earlier this month with his very own military banner installation ceremony on Wednesday, May 4. Due to his passing in 1998, the day of the ceremony was filled with emotions. According to his daughter Rosie Martinez, he was drafted into the Army on October 22, 1942, and served for nearly four years, until his separation on Jan. 3, 1946. “He really enjoyed serving his country,” Martinez said. Colunga’s title was light and heavy vehicle driver and according to Martinez, he served in the battle of Northern France, Rhineland, and Central Europe. During his service, he earned several accolades including American Campaign Medal, Europe, African, Middle-Eastern Campaign Medal, WWII Medal and Good Conduct Medal. Colunga learned how to speak German and French while serving overseas. “It’s really impressive," she said. "When he told us that he learned how to speak those languages, we were just amazed." Therefore, Colunga spoke a total of four languages including Spanish and English, as well. According to Martinez, his paperwork states that he was not able to attend high school. “If we would have, he would’ve gone to Colton High School,” she said with a smile. “We all went there.” She explained that most of the Colunga family are former YellowJackets and will always be proud of their alma mater. After returning home from his service, Colunga went to work at the Colton Cement Plant. “It’s so amazing all the stuff that he did,” she said. Although he had a full-time job, he helped raise nine children and three grandchildren. Martinez extended her gratitude for her father with a pleasant memory from her childhood. Colunga would save all of his leave time and sick days at work in order to take a full month off during the summer. He would use this time to take his family to Hemet to pick apricots and then to Fresno to pick grapes so he could sell them and in return use that extra money to buy his family necessary, miscellaneous items like clothes, shoes, et cetera. “It was such a good time and so nice to have the whole family together,” she said. “It was like a mini family vacation and we met a lot of people.” Colunga had a crowd honoring him as his own military banner rose above the Colton community that Wednesday afternoon. “It was a very emotional day,” Martinez said. “We are all so very proud of him.” They made a whole day of it and headed over to Nickelodeon’s Pizza after the ceremony to spend time together and talk about their loved one. The whole family contributed to the military banner including his brothers, sisters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even his great, great grandchildren, according to Martinez. “We were all in awe,” she said as the military banner was installed. “Some of us clapped, some cried…it was really nice.”