A framed case hangs on the wall of Capt. Richard Griffin’s assisted-living apartment in Northport, containing symbols of his military service during World War II.

Among the many medals and rank insignias displayed in the frame is a Purple Heart. Griffin, now 96, earned the Purple Heart medal after he was injured when the Jeep in which he was riding ran over a landmine in Italy. The blast caused significant damage to his knee. Another medal is a Silver Star from the time he was dodging bullets fired by German soldiers after swimming across a river.

Another keepsake is a picture of him in 1944 receiving a medal from Gen. Mark Clark, who later led the 5th Army division in the capture of Rome that year and was one of the youngest four-star generals to serve in the U.S. Army during the war.

Despite these honors and the memories attached to them, Griffin does not hold any illusions about his part in fighting the Axis Powers.

“I didn’t do a damn thing that millions of others didn’t do for their country, I know that,” Griffin said. “I’m just still here.”

On this Nov. 11, as the United States honors the sacrifices of all those who served the country in the military during Veterans Day, here is Griffin's story.

A yearning to serve

Griffin, who has lived in Tuscaloosa the last 20 years, always wanted to be in the service. With a quarter Cherokee ancestry, the Oklahoma native went to school at Chilocco Indian School, where he first became involved with the Oklahoma National Guard along with his other friends in 1937.

He was 17 years old when he joined.

“The officers in the company were teachers, administrators in the school,” he said. “The enlisted personnel were the students.”

Like many of his friends at the height of the war, Griffin wanted to join the Army, but he had qualms about where he wanted to go.

“I was really hoping that if I went overseas, it would not be in the Pacific,” he said. “That was really rough then.”

After training and time in officer school, Griffin was sent overseas where he oversaw troops in parts of North Africa and Italy as infantry company commander. It was during a ride through Salerno, Italy, in 1942 where Griffin would have one of his first close brushes with death. Griffin had taken a ride in a fellow soldier’s Jeep to get to another troop.

That was the last thing Griffin remembered. The Jeep had hit a landmine, blowing him and the driver out of the vehicle. The next thing Griffin remembers is waking up in a nearby hospital.

“My left knee had swollen as big as a basketball,” he said. “I had to have a few surgeries on it over the years.”

Another brush with death was in 1943 in southern Italy. During one mission, Griffin crossed the Volturno river into enemy territory in order to scout out the location and request to send in artillery.

“I went alone down through some woods until I got to the river and I could see, having been raised on the river in Oklahoma, I could tell the water flow, it wasn’t going to be really shallow,” he said. “I slipped off into the water, up to my shoulders.”

However, it was on the swim back that German soldiers began opening fire on him. Griffin was not hit as he swam back to safety.

“They didn’t want to let me know where they were coming from, but I was able to get back across,” he said.

Even at 96, Griffin’s mind still goes back to seeing many soldiers lying dead on the battlefield.

“We lost men around us all the time,” he said.

After the war

By the end of the war in 1945, Griffin had already come back stateside in Texas, where he was discharged from the military that year.

“The military was good to me, compared to others,” he said.

After leaving the service, Griffin began taking classes at the University of Arkansas, where he later graduated with a degree in physical education. In fact, Griffin points to his time as a student being his saving grace. He said that keeping up with his classes kept his mind off the war and prevented him from developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I think that’s probably what helped me, more than anything,” he said.

After a brief stint as a basketball coach at the College of the Ozarks, where he quickly found out “you can starve to death if you just coach,” Griffin became involved with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, where he worked at hospitals in Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Tuscaloosa and Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was an administrator at the Fort Wayne VA hospital before he retired.

Griffin’s son, Don, said that in many ways, he wanted to be like his father. Like his father, he also had spent time in the Army and did what he could to learn about what people like his father went through during the war.

“They’re called 'The Greatest Generation,” Don said. “It was a tremendous sacrifice and it was a real threat with Germany and Japan.”

Through it all, Griffin feels good about his service.

“I think I did my part in serving my country,” he said.

Reach Drew Taylor at drew.taylor@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0204.