Veterans' Day - A True Hero

Living in the area of Virginia that I do, one becomes accustomed to having large numbers of military personnel always around in every social setting you encounter - yep, including in the gay clubs - and in time you find that some of these individuals are pretty amazing people. George Coker, one such individual, is written up in today's Virginian Pilot as part of its series on American POW's. We served on a neighborhood pool board together for an number of years including two during which he was the president and I was his VP of the community organization (I later served as president).

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Since I "came out" and moved to Norfolk from Virginia Beach, George and I haven't had much contact. Recently, however, at the funeral of a mutual friend's mother we had a chance to visit briefly and he and his wife were as cordial to me as ever - unlike some former neighbors and "friends" to whom I became invisible once they learned I was gay - and reconfirmed that he's a unique individual. There are things George and I disagree on, but I will always deem it an honor to have come to know him and work on endeavors with him. Here are a few story highlights (George was 23 when he was shot down):

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You have - deep inside - a reservoir of unimaginable strength. "If you're never tested, you don't know," says George Coker. Coker has been tested. Shot down over North Vietnam, he spent 6-1/2 years in captivity. Most of it was hard time - the kind they make movies about, the kind only a fanatical enemy can deliver.

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Aug. 27, 1966, was supposed to be a "milk run." Coker was on his 30th mission in the cockpit of an A-6A Intruder, zooming over jade-colored hills in the panhandle of North Vietnam. He and pilot Jack Fellowes were zeroing in on a bridge they were assigned to destroy. Without warning, the jet snapped crazily. A wing had been blown in half. Coker still isn't sure by what. "A lucky shot," he says.

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Not for the men in the jet. There was nothing to do but eject. Coker's arm and knee were torn up punching through the canopy. When he floated to the ground, "20 of them were waiting for me with open arms." He was stripped of his flight gear, arms tied behind his back. "I'd lost a lot of blood. I was pretty much in a state of shock." For the next few days, "I was roughed up, slapped around. They were trying to get some information. I could dodge most of it by pretending to be young and stupid.

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Ringleaders of POW resistance were banished to Alcatraz. Among those already there: Jeremiah Denton, who would later become an admiral and a U.S. senator, and James Stockdale, a future vice presidential candidate. "There were 11 of us. Four have since died. The rest of us remain extremely close. We had a very unique experience, even among the Vietnam group. It was the best of comradeship and the worst of living conditions."

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Each man was in solitary. Coker spent two years alone in a 9-foot-by-3-foot cell under a light bulb that burned 24 hours a day. Each night, a guard came in to lock him in irons.

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"You're capable of a great deal more than you realize, if you really set your mind to it. Look at me. I did it, and there's nothing special about me. I'm just another guy....

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I disagree. George is extraordinary.