After her first trip, SGH came back to the states, rolled up her digital sleeves and found a wealth of information about him on the Internet. As a result of her kindness, I've been able to speak to the flight surgeon who handled the 129 death reports that resulted when the C124 my dad was in crashed shortly after takeoff in Tokyo in June of 1953. I found several websites dedicated to men who served with my dad. Most of them have a comments section and I've left messages on them, asking for information. From those posts, I've been contacted by men who flew with him. I've been in contact with the nephew of a man whose uncle was also killed in the same crash. One man who flew with my dad now lives in Honey Grove (just about an hour away from us) and we plan on getting together soon for dinner.
Tonight, however, I was completely blown out of the water when I answered the phone and a man said, after a very brief introduction, "I was there the day your father died."
The man, who is now 73, was an 18-year old Air Force Policeman who was dropping someone off at the Tachikawa Air Base near Tokyo, where the plane went down. He was at the crash scene within 5 minutes. What everyone thought would be a rescue mission turned out to be a recovery.
"When we realized it was going to be a recovery, not a rescue, everyone fell to their knees," he said.
He saw a post I had made at the Korean War Project's site and tracked me down. He said it was really hard to make the call. He said he had never talked about that day to anyone, even his wife of 54 years. He said he finally sat her down last week and told her everything.
He told me, "When I got back to my building, I was a mess. I threw my clothes away. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen."
He said he doesn't sleep well to this day. He said he doesn't have nightmares anymore, but he still wakes up every couple of hours.
He said he's used the Internet to find a list of the names of men killed that day.
"I printed out the list and have said a prayer for every one of them."
We talked for about 30 minutes. He was very kind and at the end, he said he was glad he had called.
"It was very hard for me to call, really hard," he said. "But I read your comment and cried and knew I had to speak to you."
While he might not have been able to do anything on June 18, 1953, on March 20, 2009, Kirby Prickett changed a life.
So, remember that one small act of kindness -- like SGH visiting my dad's resting place during her holiday -- can lead to much bigger things, like the healing of not just one heart, but many.
Wino You Know and ladyparrothead have also gone out of their way to pay their respects to my father, 1st. Lt. Albert R. Hamilton, Jr. - 36th Fighter Bomber Squad - Sept. 25, 1927 - June 18, 1953. Final resting place - National Cemetery of the Pacific - Plot Q855. I am forever grateful to you all.
"While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats." Mark Twain
