this article was taken from the
OHIO NEWS BUREAU, INC., CLEVELAND, OHIO; SEPTEMBER 13,
1943
Kio Nakama, O.S.U. Swim Champ Saves Life of Sailor
!
Columbus, Ohio, September 13-"They also
serve who only stand and wait."
First spoken by a blind poet more than 300 years ago it has
reverberated down the halls of time but never more vividly recalled
than a few days ago on the Ohio State campus by a little Hawaiian
boy thousands of miles away from his homeland.
It all started a little more than a year ago when Kio Nakama,
a member of the Ohio State Varsity swimming team and one of the
greatest natators in the country was rejected by the Army because
of flat feet.
Dejected, downhearted and lonesome, little Kio threw himself
into his school work in an effort to forget his disappointment.
Majoring in physical education the youngster started his pratice
teaching. He volunteered to help teach swimming to the Navy Recognition
school students.
Kio asked for the hard cases. Men who couldn't swim a stroke
were turned over to him for instruction, all part of his practice
teaching.
One case in particular claimed his attention. A young lieutenant
from Princeton not only could not swim but held a strong antipathy
toward water. He was assigned to Nakama for instruction. Weeks
and weeks of work followed. Patient, painstaking work. Hour after
hour in the pool but at last the lieutenant mastered the technique.
Came graduation from the Recognition School the lieutenant
was assigned to the Helena, everyone by this time knows the fate
of that ship.
Came a letter a few days ago from the lietenant to one of
his instructors: "tell the little Hawaiian boy I was in
the water for more than an hour and with his patient teaching
I wouldn't be writing this letter. He saved my life."
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