COTEP.org - Prayers for an Old Soldier

God was merciful. Col JBB passed this afternoon with his daughters with him. As I said in a previous post he was a 3 war veteran, He joined the Army in 1939 or 1940 as a 2ndLT Cavalry. He was then converted to Armor. He was an observer with Lord Randolph Churhill's Light raiding forces blowing up German and Italian Airfields and fuel and ammo dumps. He landed in North Africa as part of Operation Torch, was at Kasserine Pass. Landed in Sicily. and then Italy was at Anzio and fought his way up the spine of Italy in a Separate Armored Battalion. Accepted the Surrender of the German 15th Army Group at Lake Lugano. Wounded sometime in here and spent time at Fort Knox in a T&E role figuring out how to parachute Mules (the four legged hybrids) in and how to salvage tanks afyeer being hit but not cooking off....His thoughts on that one were pretty grim.
Right after the war as a Major to LCOL he converted to aviation. Flew fixed and rotary wing birds. Commanded an mixed aviation Battallion (L-Birds, Rotary wing and utility craty. Think MASH for his rotary wing stuff. Was shot down apparently by a mortar round while flying as an Arty Observer for Corp Level artillery. While laying in a shell hole, wounded with his Remington Rand 1911 with both North Koreans and allies trying to get to him he figured to go out fighting in the NK got too close and save the last round for himself. Apparently the CHICOMS and PRK folks had a severe dislike for artillery observers. Needless to say the good guys got him home.
After Korea he went into Aviation T&E, extreme conditions from the Artic to the Sonoran Desert. During this time he formed a lifelong affection for DeHaviland aircraft and their rotary engines (Otters, Beavers Chipmunks, Twin Otters etc).
He was in Vietnam before "we were there" and was badly wounded by a command detonation mine under third base while playing baseball in Saigon. Didn't know how bad he was hurt, trying to help the wounded on the third base line and was eventually hauled off to the hospital with about 200 pieces of shrapnel and severe air blast damage to his vascular system. He figured it to be the end at least of his military carreer but the Navy used hyperbaric oxygen to keep the gangrene from setting in. He was part of the team that wrote the air mobile policy and plans that were used in Vietnam. He commanded the Helo Pilots School at Fort Rucker, AL. He was wounded by small arms fire into his helo while conducting some General Officers around the country. He retired from the Army in 1973. He settled in Northern VA and kept getting recalled to active duty. Moved to Tidewater to make it a bit more difficult. He went into real estate development. When I met him 30 years ago he was about 70 and was active like 50. Until 96 or 97 years old he still rode tractors cut grass trained bird dogs and horses. Taught me a fair amount about those subjects. During this he fought prostate cancer and macular degereration. Broke his pelvis in two places and within 6 months he was back on his feet at his farm. He was both tremendously frugal and tremendously generous. The past couple of years have been rough on him. He broke ribs that steadfastly refused to heal and entered dementia. I could always get him back in this world by asking questions about some of his bird dogs, horses or the farm. He is in a better place now. If you have read this far please forgive some of my spelling and typing the screen and keyboard keep getting fuzzy....I guess I need new glasses. Good Bye Col. Babbs I will miss you.:flagwave::salute: