WASHINGTON -- The people thanked him for his service and wished him well. They shook his hand and patted his back. John B. Williams was practically a celebrity. His hat was the key. It announced to everyone that he had served in World War II.
John Williams got his wish to meet Gen. Colin Powell during his visit to the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.
So as he strolled the grounds of the National World War II Memorial, all sorts of people approached him. The tourists appreciate the veterans and want them to know it.
John could have impressed his well-wishers. He could have told them about how he was a Buffalo Soldier, one of only a few hundred African-American men still alive who served with the famed black cavalry.
He could have told them how, after the Buffalo Soldiers traded their horses for tanks, he and the 7th Army invaded southern France in Operation Dragoon, the war's second D-Day.
He could have told them how he's spent a lifetime fighting for civil rights and racial equality.
Instead, every time someone acknowledged his service, he said this, or something like it:
"Well, thank you. Now let me tell you about my brother."
Just as they've done everything else, John and his brother, Robert F. "Bob" Williams, visited Washington together on Nov. 1. They were among 63 veterans on Honor Flight, a national program that flies World War II and terminally ill veterans to Washington free.
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