By Kari Lutes, Features Editor
Veteran Charles Johnson, 84, of Wilmore, knows the price of serving his country, but has also seen firsthand the appreciation for those who have given their life in service through the astounding story of a ring that found its way back to Kentucky from the Philippines in World War II.
Inspired by his cousin, William Tudor, who lost his life in service of his country during WWII, Johnson decided to join the military.
“I went in 1951 and I came out in 1972. I served for 21 years,” Johnson said. He spent 13 of his 21 years in service as a B52 bomber pilot, spending his later years of service as an instructor-pilot until his last year in service, which he spent in Vietnam.
Tudor first served in the Army Airforce in 1940.
“He was involved in a historical event,” Johnson said, describing how his cousin was a part of America’s first involvement in the war—taking fighter planes to North Africa on a carrier deck in 1943.
Tudor served for five years until his airplane was shot down in the Philippines in 1945. He was 23 years old.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]They were really delighted to have it back and it’s among their most treasured possessions that they have now[/perfectpullquote]
Tudor’s parents wrote to the public officials of the town where their son’s plane crashed in hopes of gaining more details about their son’s death. The letter was found in 1948 by an American member of the Mindanao guerilla force during the Japanese occupation, Rudyard Hanson, who took it on himself to respond.
Hanson wrote out of “great feeling we have for our heroes” to assure Tudor’s parents that their son “did not have to struggle for his life.”
In the letter, Hanson depicts how Tudor’s plane was shot down and collided with another plane before it crashed. Hanson wrote that after the crash, “The loyal Filipino civilians tried to get some of his personal affects…to be sent home to his parents, but the Japanese soldiers got ahead of them and were able to loot such things as his ring, bracelet and his watch.”
Hanson promised in the letter to try and find other personal affects of Tudor to send home, though it was the ring that was looted by the Japanese that eventually found its way back to Tudor’s parents.
“This military police who was processing the Japanese prisoners spotted this ring on a man’s finger and it kind of stood out—I think it was blue in color—he saw that it belonged to an American, so he confiscated it,” Johnson said, relaying the story of how the very ring looted in the Philippines found its way back to Tudor’s parents through the same great feeling for heroes Hanson hoped to show with his letter.
The military policeman was able to contact Duke Young, the principal of Henry Clay High School at the time, who traced the ring, through the date and initials “W.T.T.” inscribed on the ring, to the 1940 graduate, William Thomas Tudor.
Johnson and the rest of Tudor’s family were overjoyed to have the keepsake returned to them a few months after the war ended.
“It’s tremendous. They were really delighted to have it back and it’s among their most treasured possessions that they have now,” Johnson said.