VIN MANNIX column | Decade later, friendship endures

The framed photo is one of my favorites and it is never far from sight.

It was taken outside Bill Ruth’s home in Wheaton, Md., where there was a mighty party going on that June in 1991.

A teacher, Bill had just returned from Desert Storm where he’d served as a helicopter pilot with the Maryland National Guard and his wife, Georgette, wanted to celebrate.

I wasn’t going to miss it and flew up from Florida.

Jay Rentz, another longtime pal and Washington, D.C., detective who’s also in the photo, was there, too.

What a great weekend, a remembrance I cherish more than ever as years go by.

It was the last time I saw Bill alive.

He was killed on 9/11.

An Army chief warrant officer after he retired from teaching, Bill was one of 184 innocent people who perished when terrorists crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

He was 57.

Ten years have not dimmed the feeling of loss.

He was more than just one of my best friends.

Bill was the big brother I never had.

We’d met my junior year back in 1969 at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University.

One Saturday night my roommate said he’d met another Vietnam veteran, a former Marine medevac pilot, and invited me to join them for a few beers downtown.

It was Bill Ruth.

A lasting friendship began and it endured no matter how far apart our lives had taken us.

The memories are fond and infinite.

Watching some bad football teams at Bowling Green while feeling no pain.

Putting me up at his Maryland condo, when I was jobless in the mid-1970s.

Officiating kids sports together for Montgomery County.

Hanging out at the Beowulf in downtown D.C., and listening to the DJ spin tunes by a new artist named Springsteen.

Attending Bill’s wedding in his hometown, Alliance, Ohio.

Nursing me back to health at his family’s home after I had surgery.

Holding Bill’s first son, Chad, as godfather.

Crying at his hero’s welcome that weekend in June 20 years ago at Baker Middle School in Damascus, Md.

While the glee club serenaded Bill, each girl gave him a yellow rose as they sang before a packed gymnasium decorated in red, white and blue.

A beautiful tribute.

Sadly, the next one a decade later was more somber.

It was Bill’s memorial service in Mount Airy, Md., two weeks after 9/11.

One of the speakers was a Pentagon survivor, who said she and others had heard his voice after the impact.

He was alive, they said, but had stayed behind to help others escape the inferno.

Bill had died a hero on a day when they were abundant.

His remains are interred in Fairmount Memorial Park in the rolling countryside just outside Alliance.

I visited there two years ago to pay my respects and plan to do it again soon.

Our 40th class reunion is next month at Bowling Green.

After it’s over, Sherri and I will take the scenic route across Ohio to go to the cemetery once more.

It will be good to visit Bill Ruth again.

Mannix About Manatee, by columnist Vin Mannix, is about people and issues in Manatee County. Please call Vin Mannix at 745-7055, write him at Bradenton Herald, P.O. Box 921, Bradenton, FL. 34206 or e-mail him at vmannix@bradenton.com. Please include a phone number for verification purposes.

This story was originally published September 4, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "VIN MANNIX column | Decade later, friendship endures."