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Son reunites dying vet with WWII buddy

LUMBERTON, N.C. — Alan Wironen listened as his ailing 82-year-old father talked about a friend he hadn’t seen since World War II, when they were treated in adjacent beds at a military hospital in France.

Francis Wironen, a Massachusetts man recently told he had only weeks to live after fighting colon cancer, told his son that he wanted to know what happened to his friend, Charlie Baxley, before he died. The men last saw one another as they recovered from wounds they suffered when German mortar shells struck their vehicle.

Francis Wironen had looked for Baxley, but Army records offered no clues. He knew Baxley once lived in Lumberton, a small town in southern North Carolina, so he skimmed the phone books when he and his wife passed through along Interstate 95 during trips to Florida. None of the numbers was right.

“After 62 years, the relationship he formed with Charlie was still strong as ever,” Alan Wironen said.

As his father became increasingly ill, Alan Wironen wrote to Lumberton’s local newspaper, The Robesonian, asking for help finding Baxley’s relatives or anyone who may have known him. The story printed Tuesday.

Within 24 hours, his father was talking to Baxley on the phone.

“Oh my God, it was incredible. I couldn’t believe it at all. After all these years. The last time I saw him he looked like he was dying,” Francis Wironen said quietly in a phone interview with The Associated Press from his home in Gardner, Mass.

Baxley, 83, who lives in nearby Fayetteville, also spoke with the newspaper that connected him with his old friend.

“It was an unexpected pleasure. I was thrilled to get a chance to talk to him after all these years. My son said it was like winning the lottery,” he told newspaper. “Of course, I didn’t recognize his voice and he didn’t recognize mine. I enjoyed it.”

Francis Wironen said they discussed their lives and families, adding that Baxley was a bit surprised when Wironen talked about his nine college-educated children, 23 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

“I think that stopped him cold,” he said with a soft laugh.

Wironen is at his home in Gardner, Mass., being cared for by hospice nurses and his daughter, a licensed registered nurse. He said the two talked mostly about the last six decades.

“We were good buddies,” Baxley said. “You have to buddy-up when you go into combat. Each one looks after the other. He was a good friend.”

The conversation ended after Francis Wironen confessed to feeling weak. They exchanged addresses and said goodbye, and Baxley promised to call again.