John V. Kardach (1933-2020)

John Vallany Kardach was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin to William and Lillian Kardach.  He attended P. J. Jacobs High School, graduating in 1951.  During that time, John lettered in football, basketball, and track.  In football, he played halfback and in a game against Marshfield he scored three touchdowns and returned a kickoff for 90 yards.

In his senior year in basketball, he scored 233 points and made 86% of his free throws and was nominated to play in the state North-South prep all-star game. John was unanimously selected by the coaches to the Wisconsin Valley Conference All-Conference team his junior and senior years.  He won the Wisconsin Valley Conference scoring title in basketball both junior and senior years. In track John ran the 100-yard dash, tying a state record at 10.4 seconds.  He anchored the 880-yard relay team and also threw the shot-put. In 2009 John was inducted into the SPASH (Stevens Point Area Senior High) Athletic Hall of Fame.

Upon graduation from P.J. Jacobs, he played and lettered in basketball at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.   

Upon graduation John received a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and entered flight school where he became a navigator on a C-130 aircraft accumulating 8,500 flying hours.

His first Air Force duty involved flying on a C-130 Hercules supporting President Eisenhower's trips.  He then served as an instructor and assistant freshman basketball coach at the Air Force Academy.  John then served in the Vietnam war, flying over 800 combat sorties . He was awarded  the Distinguished Flying Cross, for flying in ammunition, and emergency relief supplies and then taking out wounded Marines in the infamous battle of The Sanh.

John was a participating member of Joint Task Force-8, a Department of Defense Atomic Energy Commission responsible for the success of the Thor/HATV development test program, and served as an air operation staff officer, responsible for retrieving satellite ejected capsules of film.  These were retrieved by C-130 aircraft dragging hooks which would grab the parachute of the film capsules.

John is a graduate from squadron officer school, Air Force Air Command, staff college and the prestigious Industrial College of the Armed Forces.  He holds a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Wisconsin, a master's in science from the University of Colorado, and a master's degree in school administration from California State University. John also received  four Air Medals, the Air Force outstanding unit award and the Vietnam War commemorative medal.

John counseled and taught aerospace science and served as the department head at Armijo High School in Fairfield, California for 27 years.  

With his late wife Charlotte, John raised twin sons, Jim  and John.  John has two grandsons (Tommy and Justin), three granddaughters (Devin, Carolyn and Elizabeth) and a great-granddaughter (Evie). John was the last in his family. He had an older brother Ed Kardach of Stevens Point, an older sister Dorothy Kardach of Stevens Point and a twin brother Gerald Kardach of Milwaukee.