Not only was he a soldier who mentored younger soldiers in both the Army and Nevada Army National Guard, but Henry “Hank” Wohle of Fallon also provided a guiding hand and wisdom to the scores of high-school and college students in his industrial arts classes and U.S. Navy Sea Cadets who learned more about life and the military way of “doing things.
” The 76-year-old Wohle died unexpectedly at his small ranch east of Fallon on June 3. A service is planned for Sept. 7, but location and time have not been finalized.
During a military career that stretched four decades, Wohle taught in the Reserve Officers Training Corps programs at the Reno and Las Vegas campuses of the University of Nevada and served in numerous roles with the 422nd Expeditionary Signal Battalion in Reno, beginning when the Nevada Guard unit drilled at the old Reno armory at the Washoe County Fairgrounds. The Pittsburg, California, native, the son of educators, also deployed to Iraq for a year in 2007. Additionally, Wohle enjoyed working with teenagers and adults in an education setting.
In addition to serving the military, Wohle also taught industrial arts in Fairbanks, Alaska, Washington state, and then back in Nevada’s Churchill, Lyon, Nye and Washoe counties. For more than five years, Wohle taught welding at WNC and developed a successful program at the Fallon campus. The highlight of his teaching occurred when seven of his students earned eight American Welding Society certifications, the blue rib.