These 80-somethings can still describe, in crisp detail, the intricacies of photo-mapping a battlefield while accounting for the cross wind drift of their Navy propellor craft.
Their personal paths to the 1940's Pensacola Navy photo school could not have been more different - or more similar.
Different, because while Jerry was finishing high school and hanging out with his girlfriend on the weekends, Tom was finishing high school far from his boyhood California home, interred in a Denver Nisei camp for Japanese Americans.
Similar, because they both loved their country and were prone to build loyal, lasting friendships with people who counted. Jerry saw only a new friend, who happened to have Japanese heritage, and Tom saw only a new friend, not a representative of the people who wrongly mistreated his family.
After cementing that Navy friendship, they've never lost touch, whether months or years have passed. They've fished together, celebrated holidays together, and taken joy in each other's children and grandchildren.
When Jerry and his young wife had a son, they named him Tom. Not Thomas, lest their intention be confused with the apostle's name. No, it was Tom, so it was clear to everyone for whom they had named their son.
I've always known him as my Uncle Tom. When you're little, it doesn't occur to you that Uncle's are usually related by blood. But my Uncle Tom may just as well have been. He was, and is, family to all of us, along with Aunt Pat and the kids.
Over the years Uncle Tom and I have shared something else, even more special than our name. We've also shared our love of the Gospel, and the Good News of Jesus. You see, my Uncle Tom isn't just a good man and a good friend, he is a man of God. He personifies for me what I wish all people would recognize in a Christian walk - kindness, compassion, peace and forgiveness.
Uncle Tom knows what it means to forgive - and I know what if means to see Christ in another person's life.
I can't count how many times I've had to correct people when they write my name on an official document.
"It's not Thomas, it's Tom."
I was named for my Dad's friend Tom. When I grow up, I would be honored to be just like him.
What do you believe?
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