Mystery Writer Don Lewis

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Jul 14, 2011

The Day I Met John Wayne

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Other than my father, I’ve had only one hero in my life, and that was John Wayne. When I was about nine or ten, my dad took me to see my first John Wayne movie, The Sands of Iwo Jima. I loved the movie and John Wayne. He epitomized rugged masculinity and honesty and everything good in a man. To this day, 32 years after his death, he remains an American Icon. He was the guy every boy of my generation wanted to be when they grew up.

Not many ever get the chance to meet their heroes. I actually met John Wayne in the spring of 1966 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and I remember it like it was yesterday.

I had just gotten back from Vietnam after a year as a radio operator on Special Forces A-Team 214. Upon my return I was assigned as part of a demonstration team that was put together to showcase the capabilities of the Green Berets. The locations of these demonstrations were on sites along a trail that wound through the woods. At my site, two of us were performing our jobs in a foxhole.

As I watched for the next group to come into view, my gaze froze. Is that John Wayne I see there? I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’m sure I blinked before taking a second look. It was him; it was the Duke. There was no mistaking the well-known gait of the 6’5” John Wayne. With him was an entourage of people, including Col. Hale.

The Duke had purchased the rights to Robin Moore’s book, The Green Berets, and was planning to make a movie based on it. He watched us while getting an explanation of what we were doing from one of the officers with him and even now, 45 years later, I can close my eyes and still see him standing there.

After a couple of minutes, the Colonel began leading the group away. My hero was leaving and I hadn’t said a word to him. That wasn’t going to happen. I climbed out of the hole, and as I walked toward Mr. Wayne I felt like I was moving in slow motion. It was like an out-of-body experience; as though I was watching myself from a distance; like the feeling you had the first time you jumped off the 10 foot diving board. It was both surreal and too late to turn back.

I walked over to Mr. Wayne, offered my hand and said, “Put 'er there, Duke.” Immediately I asked myself, “Did I really say that? Do I go to jail now without passing Go?” Even though I knew there would be a penalty to pay, I didn’t stop to consider any of that before I did it. I’m not sure what my dad, a Captain in the Naval Reserves, would have said, but I think Mom, a wonderfully supportive and strong-willed woman, would have shaken her head and said, “What are you going to do, that’s my son.”

John Wayne not only shook my hand but took it with both of his and smiled broadly. Then, his tone turned to one of serious sincerity when he said, “Thanks for what you’re doing, Sergeant.” It’s difficult to describe how much that meant to me. I was stunned. Not since I had arrived back in the United States had anyone said that to me. I don’t remember what my response was; hell, I don’t even remember if I made one. Then, he walked over to the hole, reached down and pulled my friend up and out, then shook his hand and said something to him. All the while Col. Hale was giving me the evil-eye.

When it was all over and the group had left, I expected my punishment would come later that day; maybe being strung up by my thumbs, something like that. I never heard another word about it from anyone, except from the guys in the barracks when the word got around. I believe I would have been in serious trouble had it not been for the gracious way in which John Wayne responded to my impulsiveness. I was impressed by his subtle sense of humor and a degree of humility that doesn’t normally come out in his on-screen, kick-ass persona. But, somehow I'd like to think that after they left, he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, and said to Colonel Hale, “Ya better leave that kid alone, Pilgrim.”

I’m a writer of crime/ mystery novels now and I try to put a little John Wayne into every main character I create, especially the John Wayne I met back in the spring of 1966. 


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