The First Americans - Then and Now
Hanging Around With Heroes (A Series Ep 7)
First, before all others.
This weekend the word “first” jumped out at me. I was scrolling Twitter and there it was. Something I’d expected to see, at some point. News of what is “believed” to be the first American citizen killed while fighting in Ukraine against invading Russian forces.
Willy Cancel was only 22. He leaves a wife and 7 month old child. "My husband was very brave and a hero," Brittany Cancel said of her husband. Rebecca Cabrera his mother remembered her son’s bravery this way, "He wanted to go over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of it to contain it there so it didn't come here.”
“So it didn’t come here.” It will sound odd because it is, but when I read that I thought of the Olympics. The winter games to be precise, and the bobsled, to be even more precise.
Billy Fiske won two gold medals while competing in the bobsled at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics. He was only 16 at the 1928 games. He declined an invitation to attend the 1936 games, in Germany. Surviving relatives believed he turned down the offer because he was vehemently anti-Hitler, anti-fascist.
I learned about Fiske while working on a television show documenting the Americans who joined the fight against Hitler before Pearl Harbor. It may sound like a simple choice, but at the time it was illegal due to the American government’s policy of neutrality. Words like felony and even treason were used to caution men who considered going to war in violation of their nation’s policy.
Fiske was one of a handful of Americans who are described as “Yanks in the RAF.” These first few were part of the fabled few fighter pilots who waged war against the Germans during The Battle of Britain and The Blitz.
They were also among the first to die. Fiske, the Olympic champion and son of a wealthy banker was buried in the English countryside on August 20, 1940. At his funeral the coffin was draped in two flags. One for his home and the other for the nation he had come to fight for. His tombstone is inscribed with these words, “He died for England.” He was killed 15 months before the attack on Pearl Harbor and Germany’s declaration of war on America.
Minnesota native Art Donohue was another of these first Americans. In a letter home he told his parents. “I’m gonna go fight Hitler in his backyard before I have to do so in my own backyard.”
Words echoed over seven decades later by Willy Cancel’s widow, "He went there wanting to help people, he had always felt that that was his main mission in life."
Other Americans followed, before their own country. One part of this tale that reminds me of just how blundering government can be involves two of those men. John “Red” Campbell and James Gray. Both volunteers, fighter pilots, shot down and prisoners of war, Gray in Europe and “Red” in the Pacific. They survived and came home to enjoy red tape.
In a quirk of fate they never go their papers in order, “fell through the cracks” as one person put it. Despite their service they never received veterans benefits from either nation they helped preserve. Years later “Red” even had trouble getting a passport. No good deed goes unpunished.
These days that sort of impossible battle with City Hall feels all to familiar. We seem inundated with babbling boobs on TV and social media who recite cliches about bravery and courage. They throw out quotes and bible passages about ethics and morality. All without seeming to have a clue about what doing hard things, difficult things, truly entails. It might make you wonder just how many people of character and conviction exist.
But, if you know, these intergenerational arguments become an embarrassment and disservice to those who have come before, who we hope to be and those who will follow in our footsteps. With news of Willy Cancel’s death and the knowledge of the men like Billy Fiske I rest assured there are always people who see the danger early, and more importantly act, early. Perhaps, they move among us too quietly. It’s an unfortunate and demands patience, but being a braggart isn’t in keeping with the character found in the best of us.
To learn more about the “Yanks in the RAF” click here.
Author’s Note: Over the course of my journalism and television career I’ve traveled the world to document the actions of individuals during warfare. I’ve met and interviewed in some capacity 100s of veterans, the actual number might be in the 1000s. This is an ongoing series to memorialize my experience and further record remarkable acts and attitudes the worst of humanity can inspire.