This past year, Walter Sobel received official notification of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant. The notice came 60 years after this U.S. Navy veteran would have received it had he not been in Great Lakes Hospital recovering from wounds. If we may attach a further meaning to the word senior, this is indeed a Lieutenant of the Senior Grade.

He also belatedly received the Purple Heart and seven other medals commemorating the campaigns that he went through on the battleship New Mexico.

Along with others who served on this ship, Walter Sobel took part in the 49th annual reunion of his shipmates, as they met in St. Louis this fall. On January 6, 1945 during the battle of Lingayen Gulf, he was on the New Mexico’s bridge when a Japanese Kamikaze pilot crashed into the area where he was standing.

As Officer of the Deck for General Quarters, Walter had been standing near the captain of the ship, Robert Fleming. The latter was killed, as were 30 others including two British officers on board as observers. Walter himself was hit in the head by shrapnel, bled profusely, and was carried unconscious down seven flights to the sick bay.

Later he was transported to a hospital ship and ultimately back to the United States. The New Mexico, having managed to withstand the Lingayen Gulf attack, took part in several further actions, including the invasion of Okinawa, and finally sailed into Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender.

At the reunion, Walter learned that the New Mexico had been especially targeted because it was the flagship of the American fleet and was carrying high-ranking officers. In fact, the Japanese radio propagandist, Tokyo Rose, as she was called, announced on the day before the attack that this ship would be singled out as principal target.

Lucky in his survival of the attack, Walter also proved lucky at the reunion. In a raffle of memorabilia, he took chances and won both a larger and a smaller model of the ship on which he had served. The larger one, some 15 inches long, will have an honored place in his home.

After the war, this veteran of the Pacific campaign resumed his career as architect. Based in Chicago, he has been highly successful in his field, a fact recognized by his being named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He also continues to teach at the Illinois Institute of Technology and, in his 90s, remains active in professional affairs.

My source for much of this information is Richard Sobel, Walter’s son. He accompanied his father to the reunion and was struck by the spirit of the old veterans there. Looking back on the traumatic events of 61 years ago they feel proud of their part in the Allied victory over a determined and often fanatical enemy.

Four years ago, in honor of Veterans Day 2002, I wrote a column about Walter and his English friend Geoffrey Brooke, the latter a hero of the British Navy. Among other exploits, Geoffrey survived the sinking of the battleship Prince of Wales.

As that ship was sinking, he rappelled his way by rope across the oil-dark sea to a British destroyer standing alongside. Shortly after he reached the safety of this ship, the captain had to give the command to cut the rope because of the danger to the destroyer.

A transoceanic friendship between Geoffrey and Walter has continued, though they have met only once, when I had the privilege of talking with them.

Asked about his survival, Walter now says: “The Lord was watching out for me, that’s all you can say.” As to remembering the experience itself, after so many decades, he says: “It’s indelible. It makes such an imprint on your memory that you can’t forget.”

About age, Walter shows himself guarded. The birthday he celebrated last July he takes as the anniversary of his 39th. Of his fellow veterans at the reunion he observes: “They didn’t seem old except for my former roommate. In general, they showed their age, except for a few. I have to use a walker and that’s a bummer.”

This one veteran, energized in old age, shows forth the spirit that animated so many members of the armed forces in World War II. Though I distrust the modish phrase “The Greatest Generation,” I admire the qualities of heart shown by a great many of that war’s veterans. An extraordinary number of them demonstrated the personal qualities of courage and resourcefulness that still bring credit to this nation.

Virginia Woolf once wrote: “The present when backed by the past is a thousand times deeper.” That truth may well apply to this veteran of war and long living. As I understand it, his life continues to be made psychically rich by memories of experiences both hazardous and dramatic.

Walter Sobel does not live simply for these moments long ago but he does appear to draw from them material that help make his current life, itself not without trials, rewarding.

Richard Griffin