Searching out the facts

By Dan Barber

When I read news reports I have a terrible habit of also reading between the lines looking for the real facts or purpose behind the story. I especially enjoy reading stories about politicians and politics where I can almost pick out the plot in today’s news that Tom Clancy would have used for a political spy story.

I once worked as a writer, before being diagnosed with early on-set dementia. I have lost many of my spelling and grammar skills.  Or I could blame my lack of skills on my poor education…because I am self-educated in my craft. I wanted to be a writer so that I could “possess the power of the pen.”  I now only write this blog to maintain some purpose to my life in retirement.

Journalists are people, they aren’t unbiased computer robots programmed only to spew out the facts like Sergeant Joe Friday on the old television show “Dragnet” would dryly ask for. Journalists can allow their bias to creep into the articles they draft. Editors are supposed to keep the journalists honest.

During my career, I interviewed some very extraordinary people. One of those remarkable people was Medal of Honor recipient, Robert E. Bush who served in the Pacific during World War II. I saw that he was very weary of repeating the story about his experience in battle. Most of the true heroes I was honored to interview during my career seemed to suffer from this same weariness, they mostly credited their fellow service people for their actions, or they accepted the honors on behalf of those who didn’t get to come home. Their best memories seemed to be the experiences they had with shipmates, fellow soldiers, airmen or Marines while on liberty or doing their mundane duties.

The best story about Bush, to me, was the fact that he dropped out of high school to join the Navy to enter the war effort. He spent just a few months in the Navy where he went into battle as a Navy Corpsman, saved the life of a Marine Corps officer, who eventually became a judge in Inyo County, California. During a battle on Okinawa, Bush was severely wounded and blinded in one eye, while tending to his patient and fighting off an attack by several Japanese soldiers, according to Bush both he and his patient were lucky to have survived. He was medically discharged from the Navy returned to high school to finish his senior year, got married; was invited to Washington D.C. to be awarded the Medal of Honor by President Truman with most of the senior military leaders of World War II looking on, all before he turned 20-years old.

Bush became very successful in business and was very proud of his children and grandchildren who he often told stories about at speaking engagements. He also learned to fly and got his pilot's license. A friend of his told me, “It is a very scary thing to fly with Bush because he is a one-eyed pilot with no depth perception.”

Bush passed away in November 2005 at the age of 79.

It is so much more fun to read between the lines to search out “just the facts.”