echeese
Premium Members
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2013
- Messages
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Two parts to this story, 1st how I came to meet this D-Day vet, 2nd, what Tommy Tuberville did for him.
Last year in the spring, got a call from our State House Reps chief of staff. She said she had tried everyone from both US Senators on down to the General Land office and no one could figure out how to get a gravestone changed for a World War II vet. His best friend lived in Ohio and had been trying for years. Did I have any ideas.
Took my wife and I about 72 hours to get it done. Well the Chief of Staff's sister is the Exec Dir for the HALO for Freedom Foundation which was founded by former Army Golden Knight, Dana Bowman. This was the group trying to help Bill fix the grave. They asked me to do a presentation at their upcoming Gala (which turned into a pretty cool speech) . ..but we didn't tell Bill Wilch (the D Day vet) we had changed the gravestone, he had no idea.
Corrected Grave stone​
Bill Wilch with Marine Medal of Honor Reciepent Woody Williams, the last surviving MoH from Iwo Jima
​
He was blown away and he whispered to my wife . . .."I can die now". . . .after the last slide was shown in the presentation. . . . . . both of them were in tears.
BTW, this slide was included in the presentation. The gentleman in the wheelchair is my Uncle Ferd with his son, Viet Nam Helo pilot Wayne Wright and my younger brother, Marine Lt Col Don. Ferd flew 2 B-26 missions on D-Day. . .Bill loved that I had family acting as his angels above.
Moving onto part two of the story, Coach Tuberville has a Veterans Foundation in Cinncinatti which does repairs and remodels for Veterans (not unlike Rebuilding Greater Dallas and Rebuilding Greater Houston and some other groups). . . which is really cool.
Anyway, Veterans Foundation did a bunch of work on Bill's home. Here is Coach Tuberville and Bill, note the football in Bill's lap.
All lives matter
Last year in the spring, got a call from our State House Reps chief of staff. She said she had tried everyone from both US Senators on down to the General Land office and no one could figure out how to get a gravestone changed for a World War II vet. His best friend lived in Ohio and had been trying for years. Did I have any ideas.
Took my wife and I about 72 hours to get it done. Well the Chief of Staff's sister is the Exec Dir for the HALO for Freedom Foundation which was founded by former Army Golden Knight, Dana Bowman. This was the group trying to help Bill fix the grave. They asked me to do a presentation at their upcoming Gala (which turned into a pretty cool speech) . ..but we didn't tell Bill Wilch (the D Day vet) we had changed the gravestone, he had no idea.
Corrected Grave stone​
Bill Wilch with Marine Medal of Honor Reciepent Woody Williams, the last surviving MoH from Iwo Jima
​
He was blown away and he whispered to my wife . . .."I can die now". . . .after the last slide was shown in the presentation. . . . . . both of them were in tears.
BTW, this slide was included in the presentation. The gentleman in the wheelchair is my Uncle Ferd with his son, Viet Nam Helo pilot Wayne Wright and my younger brother, Marine Lt Col Don. Ferd flew 2 B-26 missions on D-Day. . .Bill loved that I had family acting as his angels above.
Moving onto part two of the story, Coach Tuberville has a Veterans Foundation in Cinncinatti which does repairs and remodels for Veterans (not unlike Rebuilding Greater Dallas and Rebuilding Greater Houston and some other groups). . . which is really cool.
Anyway, Veterans Foundation did a bunch of work on Bill's home. Here is Coach Tuberville and Bill, note the football in Bill's lap.
All lives matter
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