Fla. Daughter Honors Dad’s WWII Exploits

Kim Dabilis-Byrne of Ft. Myers, Fla., a transplant from Chelmsford, Mass. and Milford, N.H., had often wondered about what her father, Vasilios “William” Dabilis, 89, had done during World War II, seeing some photos from that time: he as an 18-year-old with U.S. Army buddies in the Phillippines for one.

That led her to assemble the medals he had won as one of the relative few veterans who had fought bought in Europe at the Battle of the Bulge and then in the Pacific, and surprise him with them – with much of the rest of his family present – at a small ceremony at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in the city where he lives.

Dabilis-Byrne, who lives in nearby Punta Gorda, organized the event that included some of her father’s friends and other parishioners. “We’re here to honor him, and he’s about to find out why,” she told the about 150 gathered after orthros services at the church, the Ft. Myers News-Press reported.

She said she wanted to make sure that her father’s efforts would not get lost in the shuffle of time. “Our World War II veterans are dying at the rate of just over 600 a day,” she said, leaving about 1.2 million remaining of the 16 million who saw service in that war. “They did live quite a life, that whole generation,” she said.

She said her plan was to have her father’s medals and campaign ribbons formally mounted and then presented to him as a surprise. That plan, helped out by other members of Dabilis’ clan, was executed to perfection, reporter Michael Braun wrote.

The gregarious Dabilis was rendered speechless as he was given the boxed medals and the crowd applauded but only for a few moments. “We were on our own at the Battle of the Bulge,” he said. “I was with the 1155th Combat Engineers. We had 11 officers and 55 men. We weren’t attached to anybody.” He said his unit built roads and bridges. “We also blew them up,” he said.

Dabilis, a double Bronze Star recipient, still carries the remains of a bullet in his gut that hit him during the fighting and one less rib from a Japanese bayonet that caught him during action he saw in the Pacific Theater of the war, he said.

He talked about how he was pulled from the ship he was supposed to be sent to the war on and finding out later that that ship was torpedoed and sunk. It carried the maiden name of his former wife, Margaret Gibbons of Milford, N.H. although it would be a few years before they met and then married in 1947.

“I went over on the U.S.S. Gibbons, and we were hit by a torpedo, too,” he said. But it wasn’t enough to sink the ship he said. He said he remembered seeing official film footage of the release of prisoners from the Nordhausen Concentration Camp in central Germany, an extermination camp for ill prisoners and others detained by the Nazis.  “I showed it to my family, and they were amazed,” he said.

“This is really awesome,” said another of his daughters, Samantha Dabilis, 27, of Fort Myers. “It is amazing to think that he was part of this huge point in history. I feel people like him are the ultimate survivors.” Dabilis came from a large family in the Greek stronghold of Lowell, Mass., which during the 1930′-40’s had more than two dozen Greek coffeehouses, including one owned by his father.

He has been a Fort Myers resident for about 30 years and is thought to be one of two surviving members of his unit. “The other guy is 91 and lives in Pennsylvania,” he said. The other members of the church were duly impressed by the presentation and the military standout who has been in their midst for many years. “I never knew he was so brave,” said congregant George Mourgis. “I’m glad to know we have someone like him here.”

Byrne said she plans to donate the boxed medals eventually to a military museum in Punta Gorda, but for now they’re in her dad’s hands, giving him reminders of a time when he served with The Greatest Generation.

(Editor’s Note: Vasilios Dabilis is the father of Andy Dabilis)