Be Kindly Affectionate to One Another

“Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Romans 12:19). 

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Philippians 2:3). 

“But he is only a janitor . . .” 

In the mid-1970s at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a shy and quiet man known to the cadets only as “Mr. Crawford” went unobtrusively about his duties. He swept the floors, emptied trash and cleaned toilets, never attracting much attention. If the cadets acknowledged him at all, it was either a curt nod or a “Hi Mr. Crawford.” Nothing more. 

That all changed when one of the cadets was studying a book on WWII history and came across the account of the gallantry and bravery of one William J. Crawford, who was a recipient of the Medal of Honor—the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on one who served in the armed forces.  

The next day the cadet brought the book and found Mr. Crawford, asking if he was that man. Mr. Crawford was silent for a long time, and then simply said, “That was a long time ago, and one day in my life.” And slowly he began to recount the events as only a man who had lived them could.  

It was September 1943. Crawford was a private in the 36th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, fighting the Germans in Italy. They had been ordered to take Hill 424, and the fighting was intense.  

On Sept. 13 his platoon was pinned down by heavy machine-gun fire that was chewing them up. Crawling under a hail of bullets, Crawford managed to get close enough to lob a grenade into the machine-gun nest, silencing the enemy guns.  

But as the platoon reached the crest, they were hit with fire from two more machine-gun locations further up the ridge. In a repeat performance, he crawled close enough to lob a perfectly placed grenade into the second nest and then took out the third nest.  

He had just single-handedly taken out three entrenched positions! 

Unfortunately, Crawford’s position at the front of the assault led to his capture by German troops. In the chaos of the battle it was widely believed that he had been killed in action, although no body was recovered.  

But the reports of his actions went up the chain of command, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The procedure was, if a medal was awarded posthumously, the president of the United States presented it to the man’s closest relative, in this case his father. That was done in 1944. 

Later in 1944, when a group of U.S. servicemen were rescued, William Crawford was found to be alive among them. He was at that point oblivious to the fact that he had been awarded the nation’s highest honor!  

He retired from military service in 1967. A quiet and unassuming man, he moved back to his home in Colorado, and he took that job as a janitor at the Air Force Academy. That is where, nearly 10 years later, his secret was discovered.  

The cadets all began to look at him very differently, and they would often stop to ask him questions and allow him to share stories of his life and the battles.  

One day Mr. Crawford made a passing comment that he was the only Medal of Honor recipient who had not received his medal directly from the president—since he was presumed dead at the time. That comment started the wheels in motion to correct the oversight. 

In May of 1984, President Ronald Regan came to speak at the graduation ceremonies. And unbeknownst to Mr. Crawford, the president had arranged to bring the shy janitor up on stage to publicly present him with the medal and the commendation he was due.  

William J. Crawford died at the age of 81 in his home in nearby Palmer Lake. He became the only non–Air Force person to be admitted for burial at the U.S. Air Force Academy Cemetery in Colorado Springs. 

Consider the two scriptures I quoted at the beginning.  

We must never forget that God’s Word does not teach us to give honor only to people we feel are deserving, or to people who have achieved great status. Every human being is created in the image of God and is, therefore, deserving of the honor and respect due to a potential child of God!  

Sadly, we all know it often doesn’t work that way. We can become so busy or preoccupied with the struggles of our own lives that we don’t notice people who might easily fade into the background. Without even intending to, we could respond to them dismissively rather than with respect.  

Perhaps we should take stock of our approach to others and deliberately take notice of the people around us. The author of Hebrews wrote that by so doing, we might entertain angels and not even be aware of it (Hebrews 13:2).  

We have no way of knowing the stories of all the lives around us. But who knows, a humble janitor might turn out to have been a national hero or, even more importantly, a hero of faith!