In Search of a Boy Named Chester: A gift to my father for his 100th birthday

Shortly after the end of World War II, a 21-year-old Navy officer - just back after a year at war in the Pacific - was eager to return to his small hometown in eastern North Carolina for a brief home leave. At the San Francisco airport, a mother travelling to Omaha offered him her seat - a patriotic gesture of gratitude, he believed. There was one condition: the sailor would need to accompany her 10-year-old son and see him safely to his grandmother in Omaha.

The boy's name was Chester. The ...