A Patriot Remembers

Learning never gets old

Our lives nowadays are made up of watching TV. Old TV programs have become popular again. We should realize there are things we can learn from TV. I recently watched the western “High Chaparral.” The episode had a platoon of Buffalo Soldiers assigned to a town that had become corrupt and unruly. It made me think about a WWII Buffalo Soldier Veteran I met one evening about 5 years ago.

The OTB on Central Avenue by Shop Rite held a Tuesday night free Texas Hold-em poker game with regular crowds of about 90 players. One night, I commented to a friend that a man there looked like Joe Lewis. He was about 86 years old with a body of a boxer. The evening concluded at about George Forman. The conversa10:30 p.m. and only a few stayed tion turned to his experience until the end. When I left, I saw in WWII. He said he was a this man walking toward the paratrooper, but he never went only car in the parking lot, but overseas. He was assigned to he did not get in and kept California and did not walking. I then drove serve long. He told up to him and said, “I saw you playing by me he was a Buffalo Soldier and their poker. Where are you going now?” Frank insignia was the Triple Nickel. His He said, “I have to catch the 11 p.m. bus at the DeSorbo service was to jump from planes to fight fires in the corner of Central forest. He told me Avenue and Allen Japan was sending balStreet.” I responded that he loon bombs that they hoped was not lucky at poker tonight, would create wildland fires. but he was lucky as I offered him a ride home. The next day, I used my computer and searched for “Buf-

We talked and I mentioned falo Soldiers” and “Triple Nickel that he looked like Joe Lewis, insignia” and realized my educaand he told me in his younger tion did not include Buffalo days they said he looked like Soldiers. I have a folder deep in my cave of the experience with Rabu. This was his last name as he was known to many. My WWII buddy Angelo knew him from years ago. They both liked OTB and the horses. I took Rabu to other poker nights since he did not drive. He went to one of the Carolinas to visit a relative and subsequently I lost track of him.

My education of the Buffalo Soldiers, their insignia and Rabu was a lasting learning experience that God sent me that night. When I reached his home down by the old St. Joseph’s School in Albany, he was very thankful and said, “I met my guardian angel tonight.”

The author is a Capital District resident and freelance writer and guest speaker. Contact him at fomservice@aol.com.

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