Raised in an Anchorage orphanage, Roy Bailey was educated at a school for Alaskan natives until he was 15, when he went to work full time. At 17, he lied about his age to get into the Army and two years later, he found himself in the midst of the European Theater’s most intense fighting. Wounded and tangled up in wires, Bailey listened as many of his comrades died in the snowy woods. “The thing about being exceptionally happy that you are alive only lasts temporary, because all your buddies that you knew, a lot of them are still over there in graveyards.”
When he made it back to safety, no one would believe that his wounds were inflicted by the enemy. He was given belated recognition for his valor some 50 years later at a ceremony in Alaska attended by VIPs and his family.
We honor you, Roy Bailey.
