By HOLLY ZACHARIAH | The Columbus Dispatch | Published: March 2, 2021 COLUMBUS, Ohio (Tribune News Service) He wore a Buffalo Soldier hat. He had the emblem of his all-African American cavalry regiment emblazoned on his T-shirts. And when Mr. John B. Williams introduced himself to you because that is always how he said it his historic service to his country during World War II inevitably came up. But Williams never bragged. He had no bluster, no puffed-out-chest blow. And he always asked about you first. Yet the pride he had for all that he had done was clear. Williams was a public servant. A patriot. A history-maker. A civil rights fighter.
Wilbert Ward saw the world
By Paul Butler - For The News Journal
U.S. Army veteran Wilbert Ward is pictured recently at his Wilmington home.
Submitted photos
Submitted photos
Nobody knew on that eighth day of May, 1921 where the roads of life would lead the boy born in Wilmington, and who would later live for six years in Highland County.
No one could have imagined he would serve in the uniform of the United States through two wars or that he would see action in six countries, on two continents, halfway around the world from the house on Fife Avenue he would later call home for 72 years.
Ward saw the world: From Wilmington to North Africa & Europe for 99-year-old WWII vet
By Paul Butler - For The News Journal
Wilbert Ward in 1943.
Submitted photos
Editor’s Note: This is the first of periodic profiles of Clinton County veterans, written by Paul Butler for the News Journal.
Nobody knew on that 8th day of May, 1921 where the roads of life would lead the boy born in the little house on Ludovic Street in Wilmington.
No one could have imagined he would serve in the uniform of the United States through two wars or that he would see action in six countries, on two continents, halfway around the world from the house on Fife Avenue he would later call home for 72 years.