UNDER HIS WINGS
Just months after Pearl Harbor was bombed during his senior year of high school, Orah Fry ’59 was inducted into the Army and within two years was on his way to Italy in a B-24. BY GENE STONE
FEW YEARS AGO, I stopped by to visit Orah Fry, a 1959 graduate of Walla Walla University, retired teacher, and longtime caretaker of WWU’s Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Orah’s wife had died not long before, and I was concerned about how he was coping. Well past his 90th year, it was clear Orah was managing well with a clean house and well-kept lawn. He was taking a break from splitting and stacking firewood after cracking some ribs during a home repair project, but said he was feeling better and would soon be stacking wood again until he had enough for winter. Our conversation turned to his wife, Louise. He missed her, but wasn’t grieving. Louise had been suffering from the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and now her suffering was over. Orah told me that he is confidently looking forward to being reunited with her, because he has learned to “fly on instruments.” Over the next couple of days, I learned what he meant.
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Westwind Fall 2018
ABOVE: Orah Fry in uniform. RIGHT: Fry with his B-24 crew: first
pilot Chuck Comstock on his right and navigator Arnold Levy and bombardier “Pop” on his left. In the front row from left are the engineer, tail gunner, waist gunner, sperry ball gunner, second waist gunner, and top turret gunner. FAR RIGHT: Earlier this year, Fry’s family took him to see a restored B-24 at an airfield in Oxnard, California.
