A distinguished public servant, and a loyal friend

SAN DIEGO — I never had the honor of meeting George H.W. Bush, but I was lucky enough to meet one of his oldest and dearest friends.

That man’s name was Don Gaylien. Bush was a businessman, congressman, CIA director,

U.S. ambassador to China, vice president, and the 41st president of the United States.

When I met Gaylien, he was a 75-year-old Mexican-American retired postal worker in

Phoenix living on a pension and Social Security.

Bush grew up in Connecticut as the son of a U.S. senator and attended the prestigious Phillips Academy. Gaylien started high school in bare feet, because his family couldn’t afford shoes. He remembered that movie theaters in Phoenix had signs in the front window that read: “Absolutely no Mexicans or Negroes.”

We already know part of the story. Bush enlisted and became one of the youngest bomber pilots in the Navy. He was assigned to the USS San Jacinto, and completed about 50 successful bombing missions before he was shot down over the Pacific Ocean in September 1944. He parachuted into the water, and he made his way to a life raft. He drifted for hours, and he wasn’t sure if he’d survive. Indeed, his two crew members did not.

At this point in his life, Bush was just 20. Fast forward 55 years. It’s April 1999, and I’m a metro columnist working at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix. In the world of politics, two things seemed certain at the time: Texas Gov. George W. Bush was going to run for the Republican nomination for president the following year; and Arizona Sen. John McCain was going to be running right alongside him.

My editor sent me to follow up on a rumor that George Bush had quietly crept into town, into McCain territory, for a high-priced fundraiser at a swanky hotel. I got to the hotel and tried to enter the building for a closer look. But I was turned away by Secret Service agents. Secret Service? For the governor of Texas? George Bush was in town all right — but it was George H.W. Bush. A proud father, and former president, had come to the desert to raise money for his son’s upcoming presidential bid.

Gaylien was there that day, too. He had been invited to the fundraiser by an old war buddy who had left a comped ticket with his name on it.

I noticed him as he came out of the hotel, this dark-skinned elderly man in a simple suit. I approached him and asked if he had been at the fundraiser. He smiled and said yes. I asked how he had found himself there, and he explained that former President Bush was his friend and that, in fact, the two had been friends for more than a half-century.

I had to hear more. So I invited the man to lunch. There, he told me his story.

Gaylien was in Bush’s life, and vice versa, because the Phoenix native was also present that fateful day during World War II.

Like Bush, Gaylien served aboard the USS San Jacinto from 1943 to 1944. And like Bush, Gaylien flew bombing missions as part of the VT-51 torpedo squadron. Bush was a pilot; Gaylien was a radio man and gunner who received the Distinguished Flying Cross.

When Bush was shot down, Gaylien was one of the radio operators who called in a submarine rescue. The two had been friends ever since. After World War II ended, Bush came home and started his climb. Gaylien came home and confronted a familiar mountain.

“Here we were, coming back from the war, and we were still discriminated against,” Gaylien told me with tears in his eyes.

He and other Latino veterans set out to change that, and they did.

For Latinos, that’s our version of the Greatest Generation — defeating evil in Asia and Europe, then doing the same here at home.

Bush never forgot about Gaylien. Over the years, he invited his old friend to special events like the 1988 presidential inauguration and reunions of the VT-51.

It’s a great story. To back it all up, Gaylien brought to our lunch a scrapbook full of photos. I’ll never forget the one of a couple of baby-faced Navy flyers, grinning aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific with no clue about what the future held for either of them.

It has been noted that George H.W. Bush cherished his friends. You had better believe it.