I do know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day.
However, in today’s column (published two days after Memorial Day), I memorialize a man who was a United States Military Veteran.
When I think of Alliance’s Heritage, several things come to mind.
First and foremost, it is Alliance’s contribution to the efforts of World War II, when the Army Airbase housed thousands of soldiers between 1943 and 1946. Most of those soldiers came to Alliance from the 47 states outside Nebraska. A few of them stayed, but most left when the war ended.
Alliance is grateful for those that stayed, and among them: Bob Watt.
Bob, who died on April 29, 2019, at the age of 96, was a native of Redding, Pennsylvania. He graduated from high school in June, 1942. His draft notice arrived at his home on December 24, 1942; however, the notice didn’t ruin his Christmas because his mother hid it from Bob until December 26.
Bob was stationed in Alliance by the United States Army Air Corp to assist in opening the Air Base’s finance office. He arrived in Alliance on March 29, 1943. He knew no one, other than the military men he had ridden with on the train to Alliance.
Bob got off the train and began searching for a restaurant. He walked across the street from the Burlington Depot to the Alliance Hotel at First and Box Butte and peeked through the restaurant window. Noticing the beautiful white clothes that adorned the tables, he determined it would too expensive to dine there. He then walked up the street to Bill’s Café and ate his first Alliance meal in that long-ago demolished establishment.
By his own admission, Bob’s only World War II fighting instrument was a typewriter, as he wrote payroll checks and kept records of other finances. However, despite his unassuming contribution to the War, it should be noted that Bob went where the Army sent him and fulfilled his duty with dignity and honor.
Bob began attending the Alliance Episcopal Church at 7th and Cheyenne in 1943. It wasn’t long before some of the women parishioners became concerned about Bob not dating. Bob proclaimed he was waiting for a beautiful redhead to come along. One of the parishioners called Bob’s bluff and arranged for him to meet Debrah E. Whelton of 415 Platte Avenue, and Bob was immediately smitten by this lovely red head.
Bob proposed to Deb in Alliance’s Central Park and the two were wed on November 12, 1944. It was a marriage that lasted for over 55 years, until Deb’s death at age 82 on July 26, 2001.
Bob and Deb were the parents of one son, Ralph, and Deb worked several years in the Emerson Elementary School Library.
After being discharged from the Army in February 1946, Bob was a callboy, also known as a crew-caller, for the Burlington Railroad for two years. He then took a job as a clerk with the Railroad Employees Credit Union. Bob stayed with the Credit Union for 41 years, retiring as its manager in 1989.
For three-quarters-of-a-century, Bob called Alliance home and St. Matthew’s Episcopal his church home. While serving in a variety of church offices, his most important position was that of pew occupant every Sunday where he listened to God’s Word and communed with his Savior.
If you don’t believe a single watt casts much light, Bob Watt proved that notion wrong. The light of Christ illuminated from Bob’s soul daily.
To me, Bob Watt was the poster child of Alliance’s Heritage—and so much more.
If Bob were still with us, he would be celebrating his 99th birthday this Friday, June 4.
He’s gone but remains a vivid memory.