What an incredible story has spun out of our posting of the veteran’s picture on our site yesterday in observance of Veteran’s Day. 

Fairly early yesterday morning I received an email through the site asking about the source of the picture from a gentleman here in Bozeman.  Turns out we had pulled it off of a Google driven search from a newsletter put out in 2005 by Eastern Kentucky University.  The gentleman (Dwight S.) who emailed us thought he knew the man in the picture, Bill Adams, from years past – we confirmed the source of the picture and asked Dwight if he could tell us anything about Bill. 

Here’s what he sent back……

Without being too dramatic about it, you cannot imagine how excited I felt opening your web site this morning and seeing what I thought, and you were kind to confirm, a familiar face looking at me across a time span of 50-55 years.

As background, I grew up in Richmond, KY, a small town in the central portion of the state that is almost certainly a carbon copy of Bozeman in its history of population and educational institutions. Eastern Kentucky University (the source of the picture) is there and it is much like Montana State University here.

As a 10 to 12 year old I had Mr. Adams as a Sunday school teacher at the First Christian Church in Richmond. He was a quiet man who was active in the church as a Sunday school teacher and as I remember, a Deacon. He was like so many men at that time in that he had returned from WWII, started a fine family and established his business as an accountant in a very quiet and unassuming manner. He was my Dad’s business and personal accountant. He spoke only rarely about his military service to us kids, mentioning his commando-type training sparingly. We were all impressed with his talking about it as he was a small man and of such quiet demeanor that it was hard to imagine him being trained to maim and kill. My friends and I as 10-12 year olds took his story of military and family life for granted since it was a story that we saw mirrored every day in the men of his generation. Only later as we matured (and read Tom Brokaw’s book on the Greatest Generation) did we realize just what great men that they all were. 

I was promoted out of Mr. Adams’s class as I grew older and I largely lost track of him. I graduated from Eastern, became a physician and moved to Louisville, KY, to practice. For the next 25 or so years I returned to Richmond only to visit family and take care of some family business. My Dad would occasionally mention seeing Mr. Adams on business and he was obviously continuing to do well. I retired in 1999 and my wife and I moved to Bozeman and I have very little contact with Richmond other than family.

Therefore, when you confirmed the identity of the veteran to be Mr. Adams, I called my youngest brother who lives in Richmond. As veterinarian, he knows a lot of folks in town and I asked him about Mr. Adams. He does not know him personally, but Mr. Adams’ reputation is a large one. He only retired perhaps a couple of years ago. Prior to that he was active in the alumni affairs of Eastern and did give talks to veteran’s groups. He is now in his mid 80’s and taking a well deserved rest.

I want to thank you for your salute to the men and women whose sacrifices have made this country great. You were very right to do so and I am sorry that you have been given grief for doing this in the past. I am also grateful for your picking Mr. Adams’ picture to lead your article. I cannot think of a more perfect gentleman to represent all that the men and women of his generation mean to this country. You also brought back memories to me that mean a lot and I hope to retain for a long time to come.

With your permission I would like to share your Veteran’s Day story with Eastern and Mr. Adams. I am sure that they will be very proud. I have most likely told you way more than you wanted to know when you asked if I had anything to say about Mr. Adams. Please extract what you wish and edit to your standards.

Warmest Regards,
Dwight S., Bozeman

Wow.  My response back to Dwight today was that 1) seems like there just aren’t as many guys like Mr. Adams as there used to be, and 2) he writes pretty well.  Once again we thank Mr. Adams and all those who have served as he did to help preserve the freedoms that we all enjoy today. 

Just as Dwight did in his note above, we also received a number of emails stating abject surprise that folks would email disparaging comments in when we honored veterans last year.  Amazingly there were a few again this year - the one that gave us the biggest giggle was from a gentleman from the upper Midwest who suggested that our site was dripping with “conservative bitterness”. 

Heck, we thought we were just some guys and gals who liked to fly fish and very much appreciate the country we live in.  Have no doubt – we also very much appreciate the fact that men like Bill Adams were around when the nation needed him. 

We hope and pray there are more “Bill Adams” out there today – guys who are less interested in name calling and more interested in getting the right things done.  Our bet is there are more men and women like Mr. Adams out there - in fact we’re counting on it.  Like Mr. Adams, they tend to not make a lot of noise, they just tend to get things done. 

And Dwight - thanks again for sharing Bill’s story, and you’d be welcome to write something for our blog again anytime.  

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