I did not know many WWII veterans that well during my time in the Army, but there were a few with whom I became very close. One of those guys, LTC (Ret) Bob Keeler, recently passed away in Tuscon, AZ where he and his wife were living in retirement. He was an enlisted Soldier in the 1st Infantry Division in WWII, and after the war was commissioned into the Army Corps of Engineers, where he served with distinction until retirement as a LTC. He later worked in other capacities before fully retiring.
Bob was one of those people who was always there when help was needed. He was, for example, one of the first members on the Army Engineer Association's Board of Directors while I served as the organizations' first Executive Director. He was one of the first to offer hands-on volunteer help in our staff-limited office, plus made more "new equipment" donations to the AEA than I can remember. Computers, monitors, fax machines, whatever we needed within reason, and did not have the operating funds to purchase, Bob bought the item for us "on him.
After he moved to Arizona in the late 1990s to escape the cold and traffic in Northern Virginia, he made it a habit to call me on the phone after he'd receive his copy of Army Engineer magazine. Sometimes he wanted to ask questions about materials in the issue, and other times he simply wanted to give me a pat-on-the-back for the way it was put together. I'll miss those calls from him, but will never forget the person at the other end.
Hey Bob, if you can read this Blog from where you are up there now, say Hi to good old COL (Ret) "Moose" Albin for me. Moose was another WWII veteran I'll never forget.
