Bob and Diane Borlase’s service to our nation and to our state came in the form of the US Navy, the US Coast Guard, and the Oklahoma County sheriff’s office.

Bob enlisted in the Navy in 1952 during the Korean War. He was chief radioman using international Morse code as his ship patrolled the coast of Korea. In 1953 Bob and Diane had a one-week honeymoon before he was sent to the island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands for a year’s worth of isolated duty.

Following the Navy, Bob worked while attending a technical school in downtown Detroit. One night he heard an advertisement on the radio which said if you were an ex-serviceman the Coast Guard could use you. By this time Bob and Diane were raising a family which had grown to three of ultimately five daughters in 1959.

So, in 1959 Bob joined the US Coast Guard with duties as a radioman on an ocean station near Honolulu. And then, during the Vietnam War, the U.S. Coast Guard played a vital role where Bob’s service was as a chief radioman. The ship assignment limited coastal infiltration by the Viet Cong into South Vietnam.

As Bob and Diane served the Coast Guard, they moved their family to many military bases including Oklahoma City where they retired from the Coast Guard after twenty-eight years.

After that, Bob’s service continued in the Oklahoma City Sherriff’s office serving in various capacities for eighteen years and then finally retiring, for good.

As of this recording on November 14, 2017, Bob and Diane had been married sixty-four years and would like to be remembered as an average American couple who served their country and their community.