Bill Dillow
Bill Dillow and a buddy went together to join the Army in 1941 under a program that guaranteed to assign them to the same duty station. The Army recruiter was at lunch. Dillow’s buddy wanted to wait, but Dillow didn’t want to wait and enlisted in the Navy.
He joined the Pacific Fleet as a diver and for the next few years was assigned to ships that dodged torpedoes and battled Kamikaze pilots. At 20 years old he became one of the youngest men ever to earn the rank of chief. Although he saw gruesome duty during World War II —Dillow was assigned to enter damaged ships and recover the bodies of sailors killed by a Japanese attack — and he is now deaf in one ear because of a diving accident, he doesn’t regret not waiting for that Army recruiter. Not one bit.
Dillow stayed in the Navy for 20 years. The Army assigned his buddy to the Phillipines, where he was captured, took part in the Bataan Death March, and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war.
Now 83, Dillow is doing battle again, this time against what he sees as a needless and wasteful war in Iraq. Dillow’s weapon is a flag flown at half-staff at his Pacetti Road home and a large sign in his front yard on which he keeps a running tally of the number of Americans lost in the war.
Where do get your numbers?
Out of The Florida Times-Union. It’s in the paper every day, but it’s back in the middle of the paper. It ought to be on the front page. The media and the politicians are just ignoring what’s going on over there.
Why keep count?
I have a feeling that half our citizens are not aware we’re in a hopeless situation. We’re losing good guys and gals over there every day to snipers and roadside bombs, and the administration just keeps saying we need to “stay the course.” I just thought that some way I ought to make a noise.
What first inspired you to put up your sign and begin flying the flag at half-staff?
I went through two wars. I also seen men die unnecessarily due to bad decisions and poor judgement on the part of their superiors. In World War II we invaded islands we could very well have bypassed and lost thousands of men in the process. In this war we don’t have rationing; we don’t have the draft. People can still buy gas, they can still buy sugar. Unless they have family over in that slaughterhouse they don’t know what’s going on.
What do you hope your flag and sign will accomplish?
I hoped it might get a movement started here that would spread that would get a message to our leaders — enough already. Get our people out of there.
If enough people start flying the flags at half-staff, people will start to ask why, and maybe the politicians will start to get the message.
Do you also oppose the war in Afghanistan?
I think that war was necessary. We needed to take the Taliban out and destroy those training camps for al-Qaida.
Have you gotten any negative responses to your sign?
No, but a lot of people stop to say they agree with me.
— MARK PETTUS
