Reader Mike W. sends this article about a WWII pilot who was shot down in the Pacific and rescued by islanders who continued to nurse him to health and protect him from the Japanese. Then, the pilot eventually makes his way back to the U.S. and never forgets the kindness and courage of those people. Here's part of the incredible story of Fred Hargesheimer who passed away recently: ...After returning to the U.S. following the war, Hargesheimer got married and began a sales career with a Minnesota forerunner of computer maker Sperry Rand, his lifelong employer. But he said he couldn't forget the Nakanai people, who he considered his saviors. The more he thought about it, he later said, "the more I realized what a debt I had to try to repay." After revisiting the village of Ea Ea in 1960, he came home, raised $15,000 over three years, "most of it $5 and $10 gifts," and then returned with 17-year-old son Richard in 1963 to contract for the building of the villagers' first school. In the decades to come, Hargesheimer's U.S. fundraising and determination built a clinic, another school and libraries in Ea Ea, renamed Nantabu, and surrounding villages... Read the whole story here at the Star Tribune. Godspeed and fair skies, Fred Hargesheimer.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/DrjPIqqF3aw/wwii-hero-who-repaid-his-saviors-passes-on.html
Posted
Jan 03 2011, 07:46 AM
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