Exchanging machine gun fire with Japanese soldiers in the heat of World War II jungle warfare, George Thompson sometimes wondered why he stayed alive when so many others didn’t.
“The Good Lord looked after me ? I always thought there must be a reason,” said Thompson, 92, of Indepedence Township.
There are actually many reasons, including his more than 50 descendants so far. Also a frequent speaker at local schools and community groups, he is a living embodiment of our greatest generation for young people.
This past Veterans’ Day, he volunteered to greet customers for his friend Ed Zull, owner of Pete’s Coney Island II on Dixie Highway, wearing his original U.S. Army dress uniform.
“It’s moth eaten, but it fits,” Thompson said. ‘But I forgot my Medal of Honor.”
Thompson didn’t receive the Medal of Honor, but earned a Bronze Star for heroism in combat in the Phillipines.
“I got trapped between two Japanese machine guns,” he recalled.
His service also included helping to rescue prisoners of war in Luzon, and clean up in Hiroshima after its atomic bombing.
“Nothing was left,” he said. “It was a terrible waste of human life. It wasn’t the people’s fault ? it was the emperor’s.”
“It’s quite an honor to know someone who served his country this way,” said Zull, who met Thompson in the 1960s. “I’m proud to be his friend.”
Zull decorated his restaurant with military unit banners and uniforms, courtesy of Ortonville Community Historical Society, and offered 20-percent discounts to all veterans and service members.
“This is our way of saying thank you,” he said.