By Frank Roberts

Recently, The Discovery Channel aired a program about some small towns, mostly in Indiana and Ohio (not the South), still practicing discrimination, though not as blatantly as they did a few decades ago.

The show brought back some memories about a man who was a friend of mine for many years, a bank president with a reputation as a “do-gooder,” an avid churchgoer with, I found out later, a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality.

One day, he told me he would “never hire a black.” I was surprised to hear that, especially from him.

As time went on, it was obvious that his superiors were — slowly, but surely — integrating. His reaction was fairly swift. He was going to leave the town where he and his family were born and raised, and move to a town devoid of African-Americans. He found one, somewhere in southern Illinois.

I wonder how he would have reacted to a gentleman I once had the pleasure of knowing and writing about — a man most Suffolkians know and a genuine war hero.

Air Force Col. Fred Vann Cherry, a decorated fighter pilot, was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam — seven long years of confinement and torture on behalf of, among others, my friend, the banker, who, incidentally, never wore a uniform.

Cherry began his military career as an enlisted man, qualified as a pilot and flew 52 combat missions. The first black officer captured by the North Vietnamese, he was released in 1973.

He shared his prison time with Porter Halyburton.

Col. Cherry was commissioned by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Advisory Board. He also received an award for Outstanding Service to the Military Community from the Tuskegee Airmen.

His awards and citations: Air Force Cross, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and Prisoner of War Medal.

His life is the subject of the book, “Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam,” by James S. Hirsch, and he was featured in the documentary, “Tom Hanks Presents: Return With Honor,” the story of Vietnam fighter pilots held as prisoners of war.

Col. Cherry was also portrayed in the “Hanoi Hilton” movie, and portrayed himself in the television documentary, “The American Experience.”

Cherry lives in Maryland. He is a founding partner in SilverStar Consulting Inc.

Another area Cherry, former chief Army chaplain Corbin Cherry of Hertford, N.C., is also a decorated Vietnam vet — three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star, among others. His injuries resulted in the loss of a leg, lost during a firefight while saving fellow soldiers. He has been through 20 prosthetics.

He told the Elizabeth City Daily Advance how he was injured. He and a medical corpsman “went to pick up three guys who were wounded on a path. We crawled up, because (the enemy) was firing. We brought two of them back, and (the corpsman) went to get the third one and he got wounded, so I crawled up and pulled him back. When I crawled up to get the fourth guy, the firing stopped and I threw the guy on my shoulder and ran down the hill.”

The irony is that Cherry stepped on a landmine he had already crawled over six times. “It blew me down,” Cherry said, “and I looked down to see that my leg was partially gone.”

Corbin Cherry is an avid golfer, and his first thought was about playing again. He played in the U.S. and British Senior Amateur games. He is also an avid baseball fan and followed, very closely, the games of his good Hertford friend, Jimmy ‘Catfish’ Hunter.

Like me, Corbin Cherry is a member of the local American Legion.

An ordained Methodist minister, Corbin Cherry has used his experience to help other military veterans in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and by returning to Vietnam, where he started that country’s Wheelchair Group, working with children wounded by land mines.

They have given away about 1,000 wheelchairs, and they work with children needing surgery.

Cherry and Cherry are genuine American heroes, although years ago, one could not have worked in a certain bank.

During a 60-year career spanning newspapers, radio and television, Frank Roberts has been there and done that. Today, he’s doing it in retirement from North Carolina, but he continues to keep an eye set on Suffolk and an ear cocked on country music. Email him at froberts73@embarqmail.com.