Page 102 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2018- Online Magazine

Paul Wilson Anderson
he Cold War heated up on
August 13, 1961. Communists
Twere constructing a wall
around West Berlin to stop the
escape of East Germans into the
West. This was a direct violation of
the post-war agreement between
Russia and the Allies. About then,
Paul Wilson Anderson finished
airborne jump school at Fort
Campbell, Kentucky, and arrived in
Lubbock on leave.
Anderson said, “I
was assigned to the
101st Airborne, a
Strike Unit, with
Commanding
General William
Westmoreland. We
had top priority for
combat readiness
and were told
we wouldn’t be
transferred to other
units.”
However, on the
way to the Military
102 Lubbock Senior Link
For God and Country
by Katherine McLamore and Hugh Wilson
Police Airborne Platoon of the 8th memorials resonated powerfully—
Division Infantry Headquarters the cost of freedom is not free.
in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, his Patriots die for that freedom. I
duty orders were changed to the counted it a privilege to have served
7th Special Forces in Bad Toltz, my country.”
Germany. Thus, he began a two-and-
a-half-year stint in Germany under Paul was born on August 15, 1942,
the shadow of Russian threats. in Gainesville, TX, but his parents
divorced three years later. Paul and
During this tour, Paul’s unit received his mother moved to the home of his
commendations for providing grandparents in Lamesa, Texas. On
security for President John F. his fifth birthday, his mother married
Kennedy’s visit to the Fliegerhorst a WWII Navy Veteran, which added
Barracks in Hanau, Germany. In two half-sisters to the family.
June 1963, Kennedy made his “Ich
ben ein Berliner” speech. “I became a Christian at age nine
and first sensed a calling on my life
To lift the morale of the troops far at sixteen. After graduating from
from home, Anderson was assigned Midland High in 1960, I trained as
a tour of Army and Air Force Service a military policeman in Ft. Gordon,
Clubs with a showcase of talent from Georgia, then became an airborne
the 8th Infantry Division. He became MP at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky.
the Emcee and remembers vividly While serving in the Army in
the troops’ enthusiastic response to Germany, I accepted God’s call to
his stand-up comedy. preach the gospel.”
Anderson visited 13 additional Honorably discharged in 1964,
countries while on his tour of duty. he met the love of his life, Patricia
An unsolicited invitation to fly Turner, a Lubbock native, at church
on a British military aircraft from while they were Tech students.
Germany to the island of Malta was After they married, he worked for
a highlight. When the Southwestern Bell and KLLL radio
plane landed at Malta, and was given the radio name of
there was a red-carpet Hank Anderson.
ceremony. His return
to Germany took him Pat says, “I have been married to
via Libya for a few the best man I have ever known
days, also with the for almost 53 years, serving God
British. in churches in Texas, Kansas, and
Nebraska. He makes us chuckle at
“My military his antics, and when we talk about
experience intensified ‘those’ days, we laugh again. His
my commitment to compassion was demonstrated when
God, my country and my mother lived with us, and when
my fellow men. I felt I had four knee replacements. I am
very honored to be sure his patience was tested. If I had
on the 2017 South to do it all over again, I would marry
Plains Honor Flight to him in a heartbeat. I love him that
Washington, D.C. The much.”