Rest well, good soldier

It's entirely possible that the only person who wouldn't have been impressed with the massive front-page headlines Thursday is the man the headlines were written about.

Medal of Honor winner and nationally lauded World War II hero Vernon Baker, who finally succumbed to a cancerous brain tumor after a six-year battle, was no fan of spotlights on his accomplishments.

Here's something he told a Press reporter several years ago, part of a simple conversation that spoke volumes about this amazing man:

"We were sent over to keep America safe. And that's what we did. I don't like to look back because I lost on that particular day (in April 1945) quite a few men who helped me and they are no longer with us. If it hadn't been for them, I probably wouldn't be here now. They made the greatest sacrifice."

Not that sacrifice was unknown to Baker. His heroic deeds on the battlefield when he was a lieutenant leading American forces in a two-day assault were ignored for more than half a century. A full 52 years after that battle, President Clinton awarded Baker the Medal of Honor. Not once in that 52 years is Baker known to have complained.

This soldier's passing is momentous not just because he was a hero and an outstanding human being. His death brings to a close important chapters in our nation's military history: Baker was the last remaining African-American Medal of Honor recipient from World War II; he also was the last survivor of the 92nd Infantry Division's Buffalo Soldiers, the first all-black unit to see combat in the war.

We admit to feeling an impending sense of devastating loss when the final American survivor of the war leaves us, and Baker's death certainly brings that sad day closer. But we also are acutely aware that there are two important things to be done in the meantime.

One, we should all honor the memory of what Baker and men and women like him did for their country. Even more importantly, honor those living still. They are a dying breed whose equal we might never see again.