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WWII Veterans Make History Personal and Real
By Elissa K. Harvill
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Recently, during his Summer School session on American History, instructor Sonny Branham, who is a member of the Tulsa Global Alliance and has coordinated the ORU Model United Nations team for years, invited World War II veterans Dr. Franklin Coyle and John Pribram to share their personal testimonies about life during this precarious time in history.
Dr. Coyle, a retired ORU professor and former "fly boy," is currently writing a book about his 50th Fighter Squadron. He shared with the class what it was like when the Air Force was new: "There were no regulations covering rank--we addressed officers on a first-name basis, and often a nickname basis." Coyle and his group trained cadres going into the Pacific and European theaters during a time when communication between ground and air involved large colored cards and smoke signals. Considering the Germans' more advanced air technology, Coyle remarked, "God must have saved us...Hitler's mistakes were all in our favor. God in His sovereignty was very good to America and the Allies."
Among a string of entertaining WWII anecdotes, Coyle talked about "the goat lady" who did their laundry and kept a close watch on everything they did (around the time of the Normandy invasion). Their goat-herding friend, who claimed to not speak English, turned out to be a member of the FFI (French Forces of the Interior, a.k.a. French Resistance) and a prime witness in the famous Nuremburg war trials.
Even in the midst of a world war, with soldiers uprooted to defend their homelands in foreign mud and snow, there was yet a spiritual battle that could not be ignored. Along with a few other soldiers, Coyle found time to engage in Bible study. "We asked God to give us a burden for certain [wayward] soldiers...those we befriended and ministered to ended up becoming outstanding Christians and pillars of their churches after the war."
For Czech-born John Pribram, the war completely changed the course of his life, both geographically and spiritually. As he watched his country pass into Hitler's grasp, his journey became a series of escapes and adventures. After fleeing to France on a bicycle, losing his parents, getting robbed on a train to Spain and finally arriving in New York, via 40-day sea voyage (on a 15-passenger boat with 1,120 people crammed aboard!), Pribram was living proof that "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger." As a highly educated refugee, he was accepted into American University and greeted as an international student by Eleanor Roosevelt. Pribram soon after decided to join the allies in the war effort as a combat medic. On his way to help a wounded soldier crying out in pain, Pribram stepped on a land mine and lost a leg.
Before he learned to walk again, a group of Christian teenagers visited Pribram in the hospital and taught him to write down his thoughts and allow God to speak to him through prayer and meditation. Though he was raised Christian, this was a new idea. After some reluctance and with nothing to lose, Pribram tried what he had been taught and soon began to walk again; however, this time, he began walking with God, daily searching his heart and repenting of the anger he felt toward the people who had precipitated the war and all the damage that went with it. Not only did he learn to forgive and put the past behind, following his studies at Harvard, he accepted an invitation to go back to Europe to tour with the Moral Re-Armament and Up with People musical performances that worked to establish healing between wounded nations.
A recipient of the Purple Heart, the Silver Star, and the Bronze Star, Pribram, along with his wife, Agnete (now deceased), has touched the lives of countless people with a message of forgiveness and the goodness of God. "If you really let God order your life, He will take you to places you would never even dream of going!" he said.
After his wife's departure, Pribram, who taught for many years at Tulsa's Monte Cassino and Union schools, read that there were students graduating from high school without knowing anything about George Washington. Inspired during his meditation, Pribram was led to contact his Military Order of the Purple Heart with the initiative to place a large picture of George Washington in every classroom in every Tulsa public school. There are now 145 schools (in Tulsa and the surrounding areas) with 3,000 pictures of the man known as "the father of our country," meaning that 80,000 students will see George Washington when they return to school in the fall. "The credit goes to God who gave me a thought," Pribram shared.
Pribram tells his story in his autobiography, Horizons of Hope, which can be purchased at www.amazon.com. Check back at www.oru.edu for details on the release of Dr. Coyle's book on his WWII 50th Fighter Squadron.
For more information about ORU's History, Humanities and Government department, visit: http://hhg.oru.edu or e-mail department chair Dr. John Swails at jswails@oru.edu.
