While we convulse again over the latest divisive issue to face our country, I want to take a minute and remind us of who we truly are. We are the folks that rush to danger to help our fellow man.
Fifty years ago this week — Oct. 8, 1968 — one of our local boys, Bill “Doc” Brees Jr., a 23-year-old Navy Corpsman assigned to the 26th Marine Regiment, lay under cover on a hill overlooking the Ben Hai River in Vietnam. I am sure he was thinking about his wife Ellen and tiny daughter Sunny as bullets whipped over his head. He lay in a fold in the ground with another Navy Corpsman while an intense firefight raged all around them.
This was whites-of-their-eyes kind of fighting. The North Vietnamese had developed tactics to get close and hang on tightly to American forces. We couldn’t use air cover if they were right in among our troops.
The call rang out: “Medic!”
The two men looked at each other.
“I’ll go,” Brees said. Up he went, medic’s bag under his arm. A few steps later he was dead, killed by an enemy grenade. The other corpsman feels regret to this day, knowing he lived while Bill died.
Here’s the salient point: I know lots of Bills. We just honored a local policeman, Justin Jackson, who is Bill Brees. You will soon be reading about Laurie Sensing, a local veteran who rushed into traffic during a major interstate pileup to offer medical assistance and was terribly injured. She is Bill Brees. I bet you are Bill Brees, too. Just last night I watched a friend of mine bring another friend, now struggling with some health issues, to the movies. He is Bill Brees.
This is who we are. It doesn’t matter if you are liberal or conservative, white or black, young or old, male or female, it is our instinct as humans to rush in to help when needed. It is the best part of our nature, it defines us. Bill “Doc” Brees is more representative of us than almost anyone I can think of.
I simply ask us all to remember that this is who we are. We win when we do our best to rush to the aid of others. Does someone have a different view than yours? Rush to understand their view. Is new light shined on old practices, pointing out ways of doing things that could perhaps be better? Rush to understand. Be Bill Brees. Be brave. Climb out of your foxhole and rush to embrace your fellow man.
Life is messy. Bill left behind a widow and child, and two grandchildren have grown up without him. That decision to embrace the spirit of helping cost his family dearly. We face the same messiness. It’s our choice whether we face it with grace and humanity or grumbling and obstinate behavior.
I am not trying to use Bill’s sacrifice for anything other than to point out that we are better than we think we are. I’m sure it never crossed his mind that fifty years later we would be honoring him as an unsung hero. How we treat our fellow citizens on a daily basis may not resonate as making that much difference to you today. But I believe every time we reach across our divides with an open hand and simply say “I will try to understand,” we make the move to be like Bill. Acts of sacrifice and understanding, in my mind, tend to multiply. They grow. They beget. They change us for the better.
You are all invited to attend a ceremony to honor Bill “Doc” Brees on Monday at the memorial at Davis Road and State Road 9. It starts promptly at 6 p.m. and lasts about 30 minutes. It will not be attended by liberals and conservatives. It will be attended by Americans.
Kurt Vetters, a longtime resident of Greenfield, is a U.S. Army veteran, author and local businessman. Send comments to [email protected].
