While most Paso Roblans were distracted by the protest rally downtown Tuesday night, about four hundred National Guardsmen landed at the Paso Robles airport. Nine C-130 transport planes flew into the airport transporting troops from Moffett Field south of San Francisco, and the Channel Islands air field north of Los Angeles.
Joe Ontiveros owns Joe’s One-Niner Diner at the Paso Robles airport. He says it was a busy night at the diner. They served hot dinners to the troops when they arrived. Otherwise they would have been limited to MRE food, the modern version of C-rations.
Joe’s Place at the airport fed all 400 troops including Tech Sergeant Andy Ontiverso, who is Joe’s son. Andy is a C-130 Loadmaster. He brought two flights into Paso Robles, where he still lives. The National Guard troops began training Wednesday at Camp Roberts.
