With Veterans Day approaching, a Southern California resident went above and beyond the call of duty to show his respect and gratitude to a Marine veteran. Here’s how:
One mid-September day, Oceanside resident Greg Workman took his two Great Danes — eight-year-old Guinness and one-year-old Gus — for a walk.
Their route usually passes through a spacious open field, an area that occasionally attracts people experiencing homelessness. Workman has also sometimes noted abandoned cars in the area.
During this particular stroll, Workman noticed something he hadn’t encountered previously along the path: A gallon-size, clear plastic storage bag containing 12 military medals along with some iron-on patches. A label inside the bag bore the name: “Mumma, James.”
“I decided right then and there that I was going to find out who this is,” said Workman, a former graphic designer now training to become a radiology technician and whose wife works at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego.
An internet search turned up a CalVet Connect story posted in January 2024 about Marine veteran and small business owner James Mumma, who endured nearly six years of homelessness after the 2015 theft of his delivery truck that represented his livelihood. It contained his tools and most of his personal belongings.
In a great comeback story, Mumma later turned his life around and now assists other veterans in Los Angeles County. He bought a home as a CalVet Home Loan client in the Veteran Residential Enriched Neighborhood (REN) in Palmdale in 2023.
Workman emailed CalVet, which ultimately forwarded his contact information to Mumma.
“The very next day I got a call from James,” he said. They talked for about an hour, and Workman sent the medals via registered mail that day.
“I received them,’ Mumma said. “They are medals I had received in the service — what you’d wear on your dress blues to the Marine Ball or other important events.”
Medals, he added, he never expected to see again.
“To me, they were gone,” Mumma said. “They were lost. The thieves took the air out of my balloon when they were stolen. Why couldn’t they have left them behind?”
Add this enigma to the equation: How, nine years later, did medals stolen in Palmdale in 2015 suddenly land in a vacant field 144 miles away in Oceanside? No immediate answer to that one. Just gratitude toward Workman on Mumma’s part.
“That gentleman found them and went to the trouble of finding the person they belonged to,” Mumma said. “It was an amazing act of that human being. It was inspirational. I’m just glad to get them back.”
Said Workman: “It became my mission: I gotta get these medals back to him.”
Mission accomplished.
NOTE: Visit calvetconnect.blog/2024/01/02/home-for-holidays/ to read the original CalVet Connect story about James Mumma.
For more information on obtaining a CalVet Home Loan, visit calvet.ca.gov/homeloans or call us directly during regular business hours at (866) 653-2510. We are happy to help.
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