As a mother, Juana Ruan has shouldered a lot of responsibilities on behalf of her children.
But on Friday, she did something she surely never imagined. The Taft resident climbed a ladder beside a highway that runs alongside the western Kern County city, and unveiled a new highway sign in honor of her son.
Printed on the green highway sign are the words “Cpl. Luis C. Ruan Memorial Highway.”
The new sign designates a section of Taft Highway in honor of the young soldier, a U.S. Army corporal who was severely injured in a training accident in 2019, and finally succumbed to his injuries on April 20, 2020 at the age of 23.
“Luis is our hometown hero,” Kim Fields, campus supervisor at Taft Union High School, told a crowd of veterans, educators, law enforcement officers, friends and family members who gathered at Veterans Memorial Park on the eastern edge of Taft.
“As I thought about this moment today, I thought about what Luis would say to all of us,” Fields said.
“I think the first thing he would say is to make yourself proud. Be proud of yourself. Be proud of who you are.”
But Ruan, he said, went further. He made his family proud, his town proud and, by volunteering to serve, he made his country proud.
Ruan’s two sisters rose together to tell the gathering about the brother they have lost.
“I remember the day that he mentioned to me that he wanted to join the Army,” recalled Nayeli Ruan. “I was scared for him, and I asked him multiple times if he was sure.”
She described her brother as a tall, skinny, sensitive man, someone who didn’t always react well to criticism.
“I told him joining the Army won’t be easy, and you can’t cry or talk back. You have to take it and be tough.”
Despite the challenges her brother faced in the service, he got through each new challenge and came out on the other side.
“In one of his letters, he wrote, ‘I’m happy I’m making you guys proud. I just want to make something out of my life,’” his sister recalled.
Miriam Diaz, Luis’ eldest sister, remembered “watching (her) little brother turn into a man.”
According to the family, the 2015 Taft Union High School graduate aspired to become a California Highway Patrol officer, and thought his experience in the Army would help open that opportunity to him.
A few CHP officers attended Friday’s event. Among them was CHP Capt. Vincent Pagano, who was clearly moved by the young soldier’s dream of joining the CHP, and impressed by Ruan’s decision to first serve his country.
“California Highway Patrol officers hold two things very dear,” Pagano told those gathered to honor the fallen soldier.
“One is their badge,” he said, “which is pinned on after graduation, and one is our shoulder patch.
“So I’d like to present a certificate of appreciation for a life of service, also naming Cpl. Ruan, as of this day, an honorary officer of the California Highway Patrol, Bakersfield Area.”
The modest but enthusiastic crowd exploded in applause.
“We weren’t able to issue him a badge,” Pagano continued, “but I can issue him a shoulder patch.
“I’d like to give this to his family and thank you for letting us share this day with you.”
The placing of the sign on a state highway was made possible by ACR 211, a resolution written in consultation with the Ruan family by Assemblyman Vince Fong of Bakersfield.
Fong, who acknowledged that a lot of what comes out of Sacramento may not be worth reading, said the resolution certainly is.
And so, he read it in its entirety to the crowd, and then presented the Ruan family with a small replica of the sign, which Fong noted “is going to be seen by every single person who travels through Kern County through Taft.”
When the ceremony ended, the entire crowd of attendees walked out of the park and across the highway where the newly planted sign was unveiled by the mother of the soldier being honored.
Who better to do the job.
