BROTHERS IN VALOR: FRIENDS SHARE ABIDING BOND

By Rick Joslin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

“...we in it shall be remembered — we few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother...”

—St. Crispin’s Day Speech

Shakespeare’s

“Henry V,” 1599

HARDIN — More than 60 years have passed since World War II generated an unlikely but deep and abiding friendship between Russell Reed and Harold Medvedeff. However, the men’s admiration of and loyalty to one another has never wavered.

“We’ve been friends for a long, long time,” Reed said at his Hardin home on Thursday, a day before the visiting Medvedeff was to return to his Odenton, Md., residence.

Both 89, Reed and Medvedeff were members of the Army Air Corps when they met in Morocco about 1944. Reed would leave the Army four years later as a first lieutenant. Medvedeff would retire from the Air Force in 1966 as a lieutenant colonel.

Reed had landed in a B-26 bomber after one of his 65 combat missions. Medvedeff, who amassed 4,995 flight hours during his career as a military pilot, was a leader at the North Africa base.

Medvedeff asked Reed if he might be in need of anything. “Yes, sir,” replied Reed. “I want a cigarette.”

Medvedeff accompanied Reed to the nearest store and treated him not to just a single cigarette, but an entire carton.

The price? Would you believe 50-cents?

“And we’ve been friends since that day,” said Medvedeff, born in China to Russian parents. The men have visited at least once almost every intervening year.

After returning to civilian life, Reed worked a year as an aide to U.S. Congressman W.F. Norrell of Monticello. He then landed a job at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, from which he retired.

Medvedeff eventually suffered a fractured spine before the war’s end when a French ship on which he was a passenger was torpedoed. Miraculously, a nearby U.S. destroyer responded and safely evacuated all onboard the crippled vessel.

Medvedeff wound up serving as a United Nations interpreter. He speaks four languages — Russian, German, French and English.

He was selected to be an interpreter at the Potsdam, Germany, Conference in 1945 at which U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Russian Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to determine administration of the defeated Nazi nation. However, Stalin objected to Medvedeff’s participation, supposedly because of Medvedeff’s Russian heritage.

Neither Medvedeff or Reed related much detail about their battle experiences. Preferring to focus on his enduring friendship with Medvedeff, Reed did, however, offer a capsule of his thoughts on the war.

“I was scared as hell,” he said. “Not just once, but at least 65 times, on each one of my missions. I got close to God several times when I thought I might not make it home alive. Somehow I was never injured, but it was crazy, crazy as hell.

“I fought at D-Day, the Battle of Normandy. I remember it was so foggy that some American flyers were crashing into each other because of limited visibility. I was scared, but I kept on going. You couldn’t do anything but to keep on going.

“But it was worth it, and if I had to do it all over again, I would. We were fighting to preserve our freedom, and if that’s not worth fighting for, I don’t know what is.”

And the cherished liberty for which both Medvedeff and Reed were willing to die to protect is certainly inclusive of the honor of membership within a fast-fading band of brothers.

“Talk about a friendship,” Reed said as he crinkled an eyebrow and grinned slightly while gesturing toward Medvedeff.

“This is one for the ages.”