WWII pilot thanked by son of man he saved
Above, Billy, a 10-year-old Asian elephant, enjoys the cool waters as he waits for a treat from zookeeper Dani Lints during a demonstration for the public on how zookeepers work with the animals to mark World Elephant Day at the Denver Zoo. Below, Chaise Johnson, 9, places a painted hand print onto a cutout of an elephant. The hand prints were a symbolic gesture of saying “Hands off Our Ivory” to those that want to kill elephants for their tusks.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
GLENWOOD SPRINGS» Miles apart from one another, two men celebrated a single day in history as their defining moment.
One of the men, 1st Lt. Philip S. (Pots) Wilmot, of Glenwood Springs, remembers it as the most important thing he did during World War II.
The other man, the Rev. Thomas Papazoglakis of Clifton Park, N.Y., was not alive that day in 1945, but he knows that without the help of two marine pilots his dad would never have made it back from the war, never married his mother and therefore he never would have been born.
It all started when Wilmot, a Marine pilot and World War II veteran, shared the story of when he helped escort a damaged Navy torpedo bomber to safety to author and friend Martin Irons.
Wilmot had always wondered what had happened to the crew of that aircraft. Irons, who met Wilmot while researching for a book project, decided to look into it for his story.
“This whole thing unfolded in about 44 hours,” Irons said. And on the 73th anniversary of the attack last March, he made contact with Papazoglakis, rector at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Clifton Park.
Neither Wilmot nor Papazoglakis had ever shared their stories, or even been able to meet each other, until a recent Friday in Glenwood Springs.
The day was March 19, 1945.
“It was my best day and my worst day,” Wilmot told the Glenwood Springs Post Independent during his meeting with Papazoglakis at Wilmot’s daughter’s house.
Wilmot said he had no idea that it would be bad, but when they arrived over Honshu the sky was filled with flak.
In the chaos of the attack, Wilmot was able to locate fellow pilot 1st Lt. W.E. Brown, and slid up into formation with him for the return to their carrier.
As they flew under the clouds on their way back to the USS Bunker Hill, an Essex class aircraft carrier, Wilmot and Brown spotted a damaged Grumman Avenger TBM-3. The aircraft came out of the clouds smoking and losing altitude. Knowing the plane was not going make it back to its carrier and that the crew were sitting ducks, the two pilots began to escort the TBM-3 on its descent.
The TBM-3 was crewed