STEPHENVILLE — Turnbow-Higgs American Legion Post 240’s annual Memorial Day ceremony was held at West End Cemetery on Monday morning. The guest speaker for the event was a retired U.S. Air Force Col. Billy Mobley, who served as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War.
“I have lost so many friends in the military, and I never miss an opportunity on Memorial Day to recognize and honor them,” Mobley said.
He communicated how Memorial Day is sometimes confused with Veterans Day.
“Memorial Day is much more,” he said. “It’s a day when we honor those who didn’t have a chance to become veterans. Men and women whose families didn’t have the chance to welcome them home. Instead of the welcome embrace of their loved ones, these families received a folded flag and a gold star. Today is a day to remember and honor those men and women from all the wars who have made that ultimate sacrifice.”
Mobley wanted to engage the audience in remembering and giving the utmost respect to the dead by “putting on a face” of the military men he knew personally who sacrificed their lives.
“This morning, I would like to tell you how they lived and how they died,” he said. “These are men but from one war and in the experience of one purpose, but you can take their experience and remember others who have died in other wars.”
Mobley began with Jim Treece, who was a father of four. Treece had twin baby girls who were close in age to his second son, who was still in diapers. Mobley noticed how hard Treece worked as both an airman and a father. He remembers being with Treece at an Air Force base and observing him fall asleep during briefings.
Mobley joked with him and said, “If you had three in diapers, you’d take every chance you got to take you a little nap.”
Treece fought in Korea. Mobley remembers the fateful night when Treece was lost.
“He was flying an RF-4C on a reconnaissance mission into North Vietnam,” he said. “As he crossed the border, the blip disappeared on the radar screen. There was no trace of him.”
Mobley goes on to tell a story about Terry Koonce. He was a young man from San Antonio and a father of two. It was Christmas night of 1967 when he was pronounced dead after many hours of attempting to contact him on his aircraft.
“It became my job to tell his roommate,” Mobley said.
It was at around 3 a.m. when Mobley traveled to Koonce’s trailer where he lived with his roommate, Stan.
After receiving the news, Stan turned and parked on the side of his bed.
It was a while before he finally rotated to a small Christmas tree he shared with Koonce. Gazing at the Christmas presents underneath the tree, Stan handed Mobley a note written by Koonce. It read “Stan, don’t open your packages ‘til I get back. We’ll have a package opening party.”
“Terry never got to open his packages,” Mobley said.
In a solemn transition, Mobley introduced the team of Carlos Cruz and Bill Potter.
Cruz was the pilot and Potter was the navigator.
“They were a brave and skilled team that went down together,” Mobley said. “They often worked together at night and flew in an A-26 war aircraft.
“Carlos was a tall, skinny Porto Rican,” Mobley said. “Really likable guy. Had a strong accent. You could always recognize his voice on the radio.”
The audience chuckled at the playful joke created by Cruz’s military friends.
“He was so skinny, we would often say that if Carlos stuck out his tongue, he’d look like a zipper,” Mobley said.
“Bill was a good-looking young captain who had been in the Army before joining the Air Force,” he said.
Potter was also a member of the Old Guard who guarded the Tomb of the Unknown in Arlington National Cemetery.
“On the fateful night, we lost Carlos and Bill, I was en route to the area, and Carlos was working,” Mobley said. “I called and told him that I was on my way; ‘don’t strike ‘til I get there.’”
When Mobley arrived in his aircraft, he found what he described as “thousands of tracers” or the result of a horrific battle.
The remains of Cruz and Potter were discovered in 1978. Cruz’s remains are now at his home in Puerto Rico, and Bill was returned to Arlington National Cemetery.
Next, Joe Byrne. Mobley described him as a “tall, good-looking Irishman from Indiana.”
“He was my next-door neighbor at Moody Air Force Base in South Georgia,” he said.
Joe had flown the B-25 in combat during World War II when he was just over 18 years old. At 25 he was recalled to Korea and flew an A-1 Skyraider.
Mobley expressed his joyful feelings for his dear friend when he arrived at base.
“I was so happy to see Joe,” he said. “I thought: ‘Boy, we are going to have some good times here.’”
Mobley returned from a night mission to see Joe, who was ready to leave for his first mission after only being checked in for two days.
“We had breakfast together,” Mobley said. “He went on to fly and I went to bed.”
It was about two in the afternoon when Mobley woke up.
“I went to dismissal and heard ‘We’ve lost another A-1,” he said.
When he asked who passed away, he was told: “A guy on his first mission named Burg.”
“Joe was gone, on his first mission in his third war,” Mobley said.
He admitted that he was going to stop with the stories of those four men. He has numerous stories of great military fighters who have died in action, but for the time given, he was only to share a few. He felt compelled to share the story of one more man to the attentive audience.
The last was the story of Vince Collosuonno.
“He was a pilot training classmate of mine,” Mobley said. “Short, good-looking Italian from New York City. He used to tell me about his days of playing stickball in the street in New York.”
Vince and his wife Marie did not have children, but they still desired to extend their family.
“We had a little boy about 18 months old at that time, and Marie would come over to get him at least twice a week and watch over him for the afternoon,” Mobley said. “She would bring him back full of ice cream and cookies.”
Vince was tasked to fly the “most dangerous” mission in the Air Force at that time.
He was one of the “Wild Weasel” fighters who flew an F-105 aircraft. His job was to destroy a missile site, but he did not survive the mission.
Mobley shared the stories of these men to reiterate the meaning of Memorial Day. By sharing personal experiences and interactions, he emphasized that these valiant warfighters were also fathers, husbands, and friends. Mobley encouraged the audience to apply this message to all men and women who did not get to make it out of war and continue to exist with their loved ones.
He closed with a bit of the profound wartime poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae.
“We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.”
“They will never be forgotten,” Mobley said.
He reminded the audience that every Memorial Day at 3 p.m. is a time of National Moment of Remembrance. For the duration of one minute, Americans are asked to pause and remember those who have died while serving in the United States military.
