Remembering a hero Community rallies together to honor WWII veteran

SIERRA VISTA — Whether they had met him once or had known him for several years, the words “kind,” “sweet,” and “caring,” were repeated by many guests describing 97-year-old Sierra Vista resident Frederick “Fred” Tilton Moore Drew at his memorial service on Monday.

Drew, who died in February, received a formal farewell complete with military honors at the chapel of the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery. The Patrol Guard Riders provided an escort through the cemetery to the chapel.

Though there was a crowd of 47 people in attendance, not a single one was a blood relative.

“Fred didn’t have much family,” said Ted Morris. “We all knew Fred or of him and he has touched so many people. We wanted to do this for him.”

Drew suffered for more than 70 years with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

“He described life as a prison, he couldn’t drive, go anywhere,” Sierra Vista resident Dean Smith said. “But that man will take the shirt off his back for another.”

Drew served in World War II with the 101st Airborne Division into Normandy, France.

The staff sergeant made two combat jumps and saw action with the 82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne Division, and the 5th Armored Division, where at one point he served 152 consecutive days in combat.

He also fought at the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, Belgium with the 101st Screaming Eagles and crossed the Rhine River into Germany during the Battle of Remagen.

Drew is a recipient of several service medals including the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Presidential Unit Citation and World War II Victory Medal.

“Fred saw a lot of combat,” said Joe Kile, Drew’s longtime friend. “With that much time at war, it’s hard to recover. I have suffered from PTSD for 50 years. Fred went 70 years with PTSD…fighting the Germans throughout the house everyday. This is not to pull Fred down, but to tell his story. He was a great man, but like anyone who has went to war, it will eventually catch up with you.”

“He always said he wanted me to have it, out of all of his eight kids,” Aristigue said. “I adopted him as my own grandpa.”

Aristigue, through the help of a translator, spoke of how she went from being his neighbor to live-in caretaker to family.

This seems like a really sad story. One person says that he didn’t have much family, and no relatives attended his funeral. Someone else said that he had 8 children.

The story of “The Greatest Generation” often gets written as “Young Men go to war, save democracy, come home, go to college, and build Levittown.” But there were a lot of soldiers from WWII who never really put it behind them.

And it seemed like the one war where you weren’t really permitted to carry the ghosts with you, for whatever reason. Maybe because unlike even WWI, it’s always written as a triumph from an American perspective.

Maby Aristigue, Drew’s caretaker for more than five years, received his flag.

“He always said he wanted me to have it, out of all of his eight kids,” Aristigue said. “I adopted him as my own grandpa.”

There's a story in there, and it sounds kinda sad.

And it seemed like the one war where you weren’t really permitted to carry the ghosts with you, for whatever reason.

Psychology of the time. My grandfather tried to get help for the trauma. The psychiatrists he saw thought the best way to help would be for him to forget what he went through entirely. To his last day, he said that the only thing he did in the war was drive a truck and look at the pretty scenery.

He was an ambulance driver in the Battle of the Bulge. We found a box filled with medals and commendations. He basically dug through piles of bodies to try and get to the wounded in time, while the Nazis were still firing.

I don't know if forgetting was the best way to deal with it, but I really wish I could have found some of the people he saved. His last few years, he really needed to know he'd made a difference.

re: ...drive a truck and look at the pretty scenery...

I've got a close family friend who was former SAS, and served in a number of garden spots. Any stories that he tells are always, "My Mates did this...My mates did that..."

I've asked, a few times, where he was during the events. He always says that he was "Hiding. Under a desk/up a tree/behind a rock/etc".

I told him that he should write a book. He said that no one would believe it. :-) He's probably right.

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