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Veteran's Life Teaches Us To Face Fears

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By STEVE OTTO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2008

These are tough times; about to get tougher.

I drove out of town the other day with my old friend and former Tribune history writer Leland Hawes. We were going to a memorial service for Steve Raymond. We had both known him as an editor and friend at the Trib. Raymond was one of the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March at the beginning of World War II, and we were going to his memorial service at the Florida National Cemetery near Bushnell.

The drive gave us a chance to catch up and share stories of tough times not only in our business but also with friends and acquaintances. There was more than enough gloom and doom to keep us talking as we rolled up I-75 toward the cemetery.

The uneasiness of things is understandable. You go into restaurants and the owners come by to tell you how slow things are. Businesses are closing; building projects are abandoned or empty. Every day my wife reminds me how much money we've lost in our retirement fund.

On TV, the presidential campaign only reinforces our dread that neither side has a clue. And on the radio talk shows there is no pretense at objectivity or discussion. It is about who has the microphone or shouts the loudest. All of it comes together in a silent fear that seems to be spreading out over everything.

Florida Roots

We pulled into the cemetery and drove down the flag-lined road to where we were supposed to line up for the processional to the site of the ceremony.

We stepped out of our car to stretch. An older man dressed in a well-worn Air Force uniform with Senior Master Sergeant stripes and a half-dozen rows of ribbons on his shirt walked over. He had read about Raymond's death but had never met him. But he had grown up in Ruskin and remembered reading how Raymond had been a boy on Anna Maria Island. He felt the bond of rural Florida as well as fighting far-away wars, although his had been Korea and Vietnam.

His name is Paul Freeman and he mentioned that he lives in Brooksville. He said his VFW Post is doing a memorial sidewalk and he wanted to do a memorial brick in honor of Raymond and needed some information on his years of service.

As we talked, a line of motorcycles, each with a large American flag, rolled by, on their way to set up an honor guard. They had come in from all over Florida and other Southern states for the ceremony. The ceremony itself was presided over by members of the Order of the Purple Heart.

Thanks From Another Time And Place

At the conclusion of the service, just before they fired off the rifle salute and played taps, the chaplain asked the crowd if anyone wanted to say anything.

A small woman walked up and said she was Filipino and that she just wanted to thank Raymond for helping to save her country. Later, I spoke with her. She said her name is Susannah Donaire and that she was a small child during the war. Her parents were both doctors and under the Japanese occupation their lives had been years of horror.

Standing there in that magnificent cemetery where thousands of U.S. servicemen are buried, you couldn't help but think of their sacrifices and the fears they must have faced that make our own today seem so insignificant.

Keyword, Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's columns and blog.

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