Besides being blessed by being born a citizen of this great Nation, I was doubly blessed in that I was born into a loving family. Ike, my older brother, Evans, my younger brother, and I were taught respect for others, responsibility, duty, honor, love of God, of country and of family. I will be eternally grateful that our mother, Nell and our father, Ike Dorsey, Jr., instilled those qualities in each of us.
We three brothers grew up in a typical small town. We fought each other, we fought for each other, we roamed the woods together, we lined up at the movie theater to see the Saturday westerns, and we grew up together as the depression faded into the gloom of pending war.
All during that time, Ike was the one we looked up to ... our older brother. He was the one who best represented all those things we were taught. He never met a stranger, was genuinely interested in all those he met and was as at ease with the powerful as he was with the powerless. A man of honor, we bestowed upon him the title of our big brother, "Bubber".
In WW II he volunteered for service in the US Army Air Force and became a Fighter-Bomber Pilot flying P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs. After action in the European theater of war (including the D-Day invasion) and numerous close calls, he returned home safely with the Distinguished Flying Cross and several Oak Leaf Clusters.
Ike married his precious Grace Rackley and created for their family, Linda, Isham, Dana and John, the same loving atmosphere in which he had been reared.
Sadly, life ended all too soon for Ike, and we miss him. But those of us who knew him and loved him, and especially those of us privileged to call him Bubber, will keep his memory alive. Bubber was indeed one of those quiet heroes, a man of honor.
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