Veteran's Day- Honor, Duty, Pride

We all have our heroes. Some are famous, some are not. Abraham Lincoln is at the top of my list of famous heroes. This week I met a man who is never going to be famous but goes on my list of heroes because of his courage, his pride and his belief that no debt goes unpaid.

The story began a few weeks ago when I picked up the phone at the studio. The voice at the other end was craggy but vibrant. "Hello, my name is Wes, I am a Navy veteran."

"A few years back, I donated a model of a Corsair airplane to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum in McMinnville and I haven't been able to go to the museum in years to see it. I am crippled up and can't really get out and about anymore. I would like to pay you to go and take pictures of it so I can feel like I am right there looking at it."

“You called the right place,” I told him, “Neil and I love that museum and we would love an excuse to go and take photographs.” I never told him what our normal fee would be for travel time, photography time, processing the images and making prints. It was irrelevant. We had a chance to give back to one of our veterans and were happy to make his day.

Tuesday I delivered the prints and finally got a chance to meet Wes face to face in his home. His wife offered me a fresh scone and a cup of hot tea and I settled in to hear his story. His story moved me profoundly and I wanted you to hear it, too.
At age 17, Wes stood in the local post office looking dejected. He had been earning money to support his family, which included his mother and 4 siblings, for 7 years. He did odd jobs for neighbors, worked for a seed cleaner, sewed sacks at the end of a combine, worked in the woods and in a hop yard. His father had been in the Navy during World War I and had been partially paralyzed. He died when Wes was 10 and his mother had scraped by on a pension from the government and what money Wes could earn.

Ever since he could remember, Wes had wanted to be in the Navy, like his dad. He had worn his dad's old Navy caps until they had all worn out. Now at age 17, he wanted to join up but he needed his mother's signature and she wouldn't do it.

"Why not wait until you turned 18?" I asked, "Then you wouldn't have needed her permission."

"But the Korean War might have been over by then," he answered. He had no desire to be in the peace time Navy. He had been too young for World War II and the Korean War would be his chance, his only chance, to serve during war time.

"Why the long face?" asked the postal clerk. Wes explained about the problem with his mother. The postal clerk had a solution. "Why don't you join the Navy Reserve? You can tell your mother that it meets right down here at the airport and you get $90 a month, $45 for her and $45 for you."

Wes thought that sounded fine and the postal clerk helped him fill out the paperwork which he took home to his mother. She signed off on it and he took it back to the post office.

"Do you want to sign up for active duty?" asked the clerk.

"You bet," replied Wes.

He did actually go to two Reserve meetings before getting his train ticket to take him to San Diego for boot camp. His mother never quite forgave him.

After boot camp, he was assigned to the aircraft carrier, Princeton (CV37). One day one of the planes trying to land had a big problem. The procedure was to drop any bombs that you were carrying in the water before landing. One of the bombs got hung up and did not drop in the water as it was supposed to. Instead, it landed on the deck right by where Wes was standing. It made a hole in the wood planking and was slipping down to the lower decks. Wes grabbed it and held on for dear life. If it had hit the deck below and exploded it would have been all over for hundreds of men. The bomb was red with Wes’ blood. Splinters from the wood deck had made a mess of his face. His muscles screamed under the weight of the bomb. It was only minutes but felt like hours when the forklift finally got to him to pick up the bomb and they were able to disarm it. The captain later told him that he saved the lives of 400 men that day. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

During the years at home as he watched his mother pinching pennies and buying groceries with their government pension, Wes felt gratitude but he also felt that he had a debt to repay. That day he said to himself, “Debt paid in full.”

When his two year tour of duty was over, so was the war and Wes went home with the satisfaction of believing that his debt for the assistance that he and his family had received had been repaid.

He sustained injuries during his act of heroism to his back and foot that continued to plague him but he did not want disability money. He would have been owing again and he couldn't have that.

This is why Wes goes on my list of heroes. It is his sense of honor and duty that I find admirable. He epitomizes the famous quote from JFK, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Thank you, Wes, and all our veterans this day when we pause to remember the sacrifices you made to preserve our freedom.