Talking with an American hero

Published 9:39 am Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I answered the phone on the second ring and immediately noticed the excitement in my newest friend’s voice.

“Billy” the voice said, “if you have a minute, I’d like to tell you about my trip.”

“If I have a minute?” I thought. “I’ll give you all day.”

This was no ordinary call. The man on the other end of the line always has my undivided attention.

The voice belonged to Ironton’s Bill Washburn, a former POW and Purple Heart recipient who recently returned from a gratis trip to Washington D.C. to visit the WWII Memorial.

The trip, provided by a wonderful organization called Honor Flight Columbus, arranged for 87 of our nation’s heroes to visit the shrine that marks their sacrifices for our freedom.

Bill’s son and grandson, Bill and Brad Washburn, took care of the details and ensured that the patriarch of their family was aboard the flight from Columbus to Baltimore. Upon landing in Maryland with his fellow servicemen, Bill was utterly amazed by the throngs of people awaiting their arrival at the airport.

“There were probably around three hundred people waiting to greet us at 8:30 in the morning,” he said, incredulous of the support.

Then he told me about his return trip to Columbus.

“About 800 to 1,000 people were waiting on us when we came back,” he remembered, the disbelief evident in his pitch. “Isn’t it something that so many people would come out in stormy weather to meet a bunch of old men?” he laughed.

“Did you feel like a rock star?” I asked, enjoying his enthusiasm.

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “I kind of did. You couldn’t believe it. It made you feel proud and small.”

And he should feel proud, but convincing him of this viewpoint is another matter.

I went to see him two days later to talk about his trip, which canvassed various landmarks over the course of the busy day. The confusion is evident in his facial features when he says he doesn’t understand why people line up to cheer “a bunch of old men.”

When I asked him why he didn’t understand the adulation, he said, point blank as he shifted his gaze to the floor, “because I don’t deserve it.”

This is a man who was in an airplane that was shot down over enemy territory. He came back to consciousness hanging by his parachute straps in a tree and was captured and treated like an animal for more than two months before being rescued.

At any time, his life could have ended on a battlefield…and, save for the grace of God, it should have happened on a bridge in Yugoslavia as he and his comrades were used as war-time pawns at gun-point.

Now, 66 years later, people are still, thankfully, honoring the courageous souls who put their own lives in jeopardy abroad so we can continue to enjoy the security of our lives at home.

I opened this story by saying that I received a call from my newest friend. I’d like to close it by saying how awesome it is for me to have the privilege to know and converse with a true American hero….someone who literally fought to protect my life.

Bill Washburn might not understand why people are so grateful for his sacrifices, and I can’t make him see the awe in my mind as I listen to his stories.

But he is a hero and he should always be treated as one.

Because he DOES deserve it; more than he’ll ever allow himself to realize.

Billy Bruce is a freelance writer who lives in Pedro. He can be contacted at hollandkat3@aol.com.