Too Late...

Sometimes life can be rough. You get an idea you want to execute but life has other plans.

I recently contracted with the Mansfield News Journal to provide a weekly column profiling military veterans in and around the Richland County region. Ron Simon, a fantastic writer who'd previously held down that gig, passed away last fall and the Journal had been looking for a source for the vet stories ever since; they're quite popular with the NJ's readers. I have a great deal of respect for our veterans and, coupled with my passion for American history, this was a perfect fit, a task I enjoy immensely,

This morning, I traveled to a friend's home in Ontario; he's a retired copper also, a man who lost his wife to cancer on Thanksgiving night. Ron knows a lot of people, and recently he'd told me about two area neighbors who are World War Two veterans, men I'd definitely like to profile for the newspaper. Since he knows them personally, Ron decided to call one of them first, to see if I could make an appointment to talk to him.

Ron started speaking on the phone to the man's adult son, surprised that he would be at his father's home so early in the day. It soon became evident that something was wrong on the other end of the line by the look on Ron's face.

The man I wanted to interview, to get his story of what he'd experienced during the war, had died mere hours before.

The man was Ontario resident Chet Hellinger.

Every day, America loses her WW II veterans at an ever increasing rate, these heroes who defended liberty and freedom on mostly foreign soil, young men heroically serving the inferno that is war. I honor those men and women who gave up a portion of their lives to military service, no matter the conflict, no matter their involvement. They are all heroes.

This morning, we lost another.