Joel (Hatch) Hatchell, who with his wife, Tot, is a resident at Blue Ridge Assisted Living, turned 99 years old this past Sunday, October 1. Tot celebrated her 98th birthday last July.
Hatchell was born in 1924, and 17 short years later in January of 1942, he would join the United States Marine Corps.
“It was one of the best things that ever happened to me, except for Tot,” Hatchell laughed as he nudged his wife, Yvonne (Tot) Hatchell, who sat right next to him.
Hailing from Denham Springs, Louisiana, Hatchell was a freshman at Louisiana State University when he made the decision to join the Marines.
He studied at LSU to be an air monitor engineer. He said he was glad that didn’t work out.
When he graduated boot camp, he was asked if he wanted aviation or infantry. He told his recruiter that he wanted to be an aerial gunner, so he was assigned to a dive bomb squadron.
He recalled his first flight, in the back of an SBD Douglas dive bomber plane.
Early on, he was sent home for 30 days on medical leave for appendicitis. When he got back from medical leave, he found that the dive bomb had shipped out without him, and subsequently, he was reassigned to the fire squadron.
“I look back on life now and I realize that God did not want me to be an aerial gunner,” Hatchell said.
Upon his reassignment to the fire squadron, Hatchell was asked what he knew how to do. He told them he had been driving vehicles since he was 12 years old. This landed him a position where he alternated driving fire trucks and ambulances on the side of airstrips.
Upon scheduling for rest and recuperation in Auckland, New Zealand, he was switched within three days to Efate, New Hebrides. There, he was a part of a training group for pilots that were building their time as dive bomb and torpedo pilots.
From there, he came back to the states. He found himself at the Marine Air Station in El Centro, California, in July of 1944. He was given leave to go home shortly after.
Hatchell recalled that when he got home, a merchant marine acquaintance suggested taking a group of local girls out to dinner. Hatchell obliged and met his wife, who goes by Tot because she’s “so small.” After a few dates, Hatchell recalled his father urging him to marry Tot. They were married May 4, 1945.
“It’s been easy,” said Tot in reference to spending 78 years with Hatch.
When Hatchell got out of the Marines in October of 1945, he found a job working for Eastern Airlines. He would work there for a little over seven years before moving to the Federal Aviation Administration in 1953 in air traffic control. He retired from the FAA in 1980.
“I’ve had a wonderful life and vocations... God has blessed us for very many years,” he said.
With Tot Hatchell having turned 98 this past July and Joel Hatchell turning 99 years old last weekend, they credit God for their longevity and full mental faculties.
Hatch and Tot can be seen occasionally, sporting around Blue Ridgte in a red Mini Cooper, on one of their regular dates on day pass from Blue Ridge Assisted Living.