November 30, 2005
Griffin earns veteran award
Bob Griffin receives Veteran of the Year honor from coalition
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Stories he's got, but Bob Griffin is a man who transcends the pieces of his life to be greater that sum of the parts.
Honored on Veteran's Day as Veteran of the Year by the Grand Traverse Veteran's Coalition, the former Army MP and machinist now devotes much of his free time to helping other veterans. Active in area veterans organizations for only five years, Griffin has carved out a reputation for being both the 'go to' and the 'can do' guy.
"Veterans come first as far as he's concerned, veterans are always first," said Joe Lada of Traverse City, a friend and fellow member of VFW Post 2780 and the Korean War veterans chapter.
Lada noted that Griffin is always the first to volunteer for projects large and small.
"Bob's full of energy and never backs off on anything that he needs to do," Lada added. "He's just a loyal worker and a good friend and comrade. I guess he's just one of those guys that does it all - he can do anything and when it's done, it's done right."
The Veterans Coalition also named Wal-Mart Company of the Year for their support of veteran's causes. Jerry French, the manager of the local store, accepted the award.
A quiet and thoughtful man, Griffin was completely surprised to receive the Veteran of the Year honor. Members of the Coalition managed keep it a secret - even conspiring with his wife, Bonnie - despite Griffin being involved in many activities and events.
"I was very shocked and very honored and I couldn't believe it," said Griffin, who served in the Army from 1958-1964, including stints in Germany and Korea. "It's quite an honor to have all your comrades vote you in as Veteran of the Year."
"Next to being John F. Kennedy's color guard, this is the highest honor I've got," he added.
Griffin's chance to present the flag to this larger-than-life President came while serving in Germany during the early 1960s. At the height of the Cold War, Kennedy, his wife Jackie and their children visited the base in Ansbach, Germany, where Griffin was stationed. Griffin was one of four from his unit chosen to present the flag.
"He gave a speech and trooped the line, him and Jackie and his kids," recalled Griffin, who remembered that Kennedy refused to eat in the Officer's Club and joined the soldiers instead. "And he invited us all to the White House if we ever got up that way."
Dropping out of Traverse City Senior High, Griffin joined the service at 17. A skinny kid, only the intervention of a colonel kept him from being bounced out for not weighing the required 125 pounds. Tough and scrappy despite his size, Griffin would not take "no" for an answer and attracted the colonel's attention with his determination.
"He made me promise to each as much as I could every meal during basic training," he said. "When I came out of basic training I weighted 150 pounds, but then I got pneumonia and lost most of it."
Reflecting back, Griffin is grateful that he was able to get in. He left the service as a specialist E5 and along the way acquired his GED plus a skilled trade as a machinist.
"The Army helped me grow up, I was just a punk kid that was headed in the wrong direction," he said. "I skipped school, didn't realize how important school was."
Then there are his Elvis Presley stories. Stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, at the same time Elvis was there, he shipped from the same depot out two days after the famous singer. Prior to that, he sat next to him in a dental clinic and remembered Elvis cruising in his fancy Cadillac around the base.
"I walked guard around his barracks," said Griffin. "He was not stand-offish, he was a super nice guy."
Griffin also served 13 months in Korea. Although the Korean war was over, the situation was combustible and he was part of a guard detail around a sensitive compound in Seoul during riots in the late 1950s.
"I ran classified shipments all over Korea," he recalled of his time in a guided missile secret weapons unit.