Angels Camp, CA…Mr. Melvin Randall Ogg October 4, 1922 ~ April 7, 2025 (age 102). Marine veteran Melvin Randall Ogg, a 41-year local who earned a Purple Heart for his World War ll service, passed away this past week at 102.

Born on Oct. 4, 1922, Melvin Ogg was the oldest veteran in the Angels Camp Veterans Memorial District until his passing last Monday, April 7. Answering the call in 1942 as the world went to war, he served for nearly four years in the USMC as a Private First Class (PFC). Within a year after training in jungle warfare, he encountered live fire first at Guadalcanal and then on the island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. While aboard a Navy vessel awaiting landing, the ship was attacked by kamikazes. Injured on land by a nearby mortar fire strike, Melvin, a combat engineer, woke up at a field hospital and after a few months of recovery, was then sent to fight in the swamps of Guadalcanal and then in Guam. For his valor and injuries during his service, he was awarded a Purple Heart, which he received some 68 years later.

The youngest of five children growing up at the height of the Great Depression, Melvin and his family moved often as his parents searched for work. Although he did not initially graduate from high school before volunteering for military service, Mel ultimately earned his high school GED at the age of 87 through a veterans program at the Calaveras County Office of Education after studying for two years with volunteer tutors.

After proposing in a wartime letter to his Planeview, Texas high school sweetheart Nadine, the two married in San Diego, where he was stationed. Once his military service was completed, they lived for a time in El Centro, where their first child, Sandra was born and he worked at the Golden State Creamery.

Moving to Eureka for a spell, the family eventually settled in San Jose, where Melvin worked for Westinghouse, Nadine worked for the telephone company, and they had two more children, Melvin Randall Junior and Gary Wayne. Melvin Junior perished in a car accident in 1980.

The couple, married for 61 years before Nadine’s passing in Angels Camp, was blessed with seven grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

A graveside service will be held Thursday, April 17 at 10 a.m. in the veterans section at Sunset View Cemetery, 10200 Highway 88, in Jackson.

Online condolences can be made at https://www.dieboldfuneral.com/. Funeral arrangements were trusted to San Andreas Memorial Chapel, 254 West St. Charles PO Box 328 San Andreas, CA 95249, (209) 754-3361.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Melvin R. Ogg, please visit our floral store.

Services
Graveside Service
Monday
April 14, 2025
10:00 AM
Sunset View Cemetery
10200 Highway 88
Jackson, CA 95642, CA 95642