Baker City's 99-Year-Old WWII Veteran Travels to New Zealand's South Island

Ken Anderson is closing in on his first century, but as he contemplates the milestone of his 100th birthday, a little more than eight months from now, he's not pondering parties or presents. The 99-year-old Baker City World War II veteran just returned from New Zealand's South Island, and he's already thinking about what comes next.

He and travel companion Dave Cross left on March 2 and returned 15 days later. After a 7,000-mile flight from San Francisco to Christchurch, the two drove nearly 2,500 miles on a circuitous route around the South Island. "It surpassed all our expectations," Anderson said. "It's a beautiful country. Clean and very nice in all ways."

Anderson was entranced by the scenery, in particular the towering mountains. "It was disconcerting at times," he said. "Almost frightening." He was grateful for Cross, who drove their rental car and handled both the grades, and driving on the left, with aplomb. Anderson said the South Island reminded him in some ways of Oregon. Both have a major mountain range that divides them into distinctly different regions, damp and green to the west, much more arid to the east.

Cross, who served in the U.S. Army for 27 years, met Anderson several years ago when they were neighbors in Baker City, before Anderson moved to Meadowbrook. Anderson describes the 65-year-old fellow veteran simply: "He's my guide and my guardian." "It's his bucket list," Cross said.

Since turning 95, Anderson has traveled tens of thousands of miles. He revisited places he first saw as a teenage sailor in the U.S. Navy, not as a nonagenarian tourist. He watched a Hawaiian volcano spew lava, an Alaskan glacier glisten in the sunshine, and sheep grazing in the hinterlands of New Zealand's South Island. He placed a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

Anderson grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in November 1944, just before his 18th birthday on Dec. 5. Anderson, who moved to Baker City in 1989, didn't expect to take any of these journeys. But his son, Kent, his only living relative, a civil engineer who lives in Las Vegas, came to visit a couple of years ago and had a suggestion. "He told me, spend some of your money and have as much fun as you can," Anderson recalls his son telling him. "You can't take it with you." Anderson heeded his son's advice.

When Cross learned that Anderson was a World War II veteran, he thought right off about the Honor Flight program. Honor Flight arranges all-expenses-paid trips for military veterans to Washington, D.C. In September 2022, Cross accompanied Anderson on an Honor Flight trip to the nation's capital. "I was very honored to be picked," Anderson said soon after returning in 2022. "I'm very proud and thankful. I know why they call it an Honor Flight. It was something special." In May 2025, Anderson and Cross flew to Hilo, Hawaii. The reason was a volcano: Kilauea has been erupting regularly since 2024, and Anderson, having seen photos and videos of its magma fountains, was fascinated.

"I'm getting a little on the old side," Anderson concedes. His eyesight isn't as sharp as it once was, his hearing not as keen, either. He gets around with a walker. Even so, he's already set his sights on Iceland.

It is fitting that the island's volcanic landscape would call to Anderson. He worked as a mining geologist and engineer for decades, and the prospect of seeing fire and ice up close carries a professional pull alongside the personal one. Anderson is one of just four, possibly five, surviving World War II veterans living in Baker County, according to Rick Gloria, the county's veteran service officer. The others are Milton Linzel, 97, Robert Bennett, 102, and Colleen Anderson, 101. Colleen is not related to Ken. Gloria said that when he started in his current job in 2014, there were 37 World War II veterans living in the county.

"There's not many of us left," Anderson said.

With Cross at his side, Anderson paused at Meadowbrook Place on the morning of March 23, looking out his window and turning the idea of Iceland over in his mind, the way a person might savor an unfamiliar taste. "One more trip," he mused.