Deseret News Column about Dad

This is an article that was written by Lee Benson, a columnist for the Deseret News. Lee and his twin brother Dee were in my BYU ward when I came back from my mission in 1970. When we moved to Utah in 2001 I noticed his column in the paper. So when I saw him in front of us in the security line at the airport when Dad and I were going to Alaska, I just had to say hi to him and renew our acquaintance. I emailed him a couple of weeks ago and mentioned Dad's death and I was surprised when he emailed back and remembered our conversation in the airport. Here is his column.

'Ordinary hero' led a life of service
By Lee Benson
Deseret News
Published: Friday, Feb. 26, 2010 12:05 a.m. MST

I met him a year ago, when he was 96. It was one of those modern introductions. We were waiting in a security line at the airport.
Actually, it was his son I met first, Harold Jackson, who jogged my memory that we were once classmates in college.
But even before Harold spoke up, I'd been studying him and the older man next to him.
My guesses are often wrong, but this one was right: a son taking his dad on a trip. And not because he had to. Because he wanted to.
Because the dad had done so much for him and this was a way to say thanks.
"Dad always wanted to see Alaska," Harold said that day. "So I called him and said, 'Pack your bag; we're going.' "
Then he slung V. Rex Jackson's bag onto the security belt.
I forgot about that encounter until I opened an e-mail this week. It was from Harold Jackson.
"I thought you'd like to know that Dad passed away," he wrote. "Alaska was his last vacation trip."
"He was an ordinary hero," he added, and then, for enlightenment, he included a few details of two heroic occasions in his father's life.
One was in June 1944, D-Day, when he stormed the beach at Normandy.
It happened to be Utah Beach — an appropriate destination for a young man who had been born in Randolph, Utah.He was with a U.S. Army engineer regiment whose job was to lay down matting so the trucks, tractors and tanks waiting to come ashore could have traction in making it to higher ground.
Pvt. Jackson was among the first Allied troops to set foot on French soil. He almost drowned getting there. Then he had to help haul in bodies of soldiers who did drown.
Several weeks later, he marched into Paris. Several months after that, still unhurt, he was in Germany when the war he helped win ended. He had survived four invasions and came home with seven battle stars.
The other hero moment for V. Rex Jackson came nearly 50 years later, in February 1993, when he stormed the stage at the Marriott Center.
OK, storming it is overstating it. He was 80 at the time and had come to the Marriott Center to listen to Howard W. Hunter, then an LDS apostle and soon to be LDS Church president, give a speech to 17,000 BYU students and faculty.
The peaceful nature of the occasion was shattered when a 27-year-old man named Cody Judy jumped onto the stage, said he had a bomb and demanded that Hunter read a three-page statement.
Security rushed to the edge of the stage but was held at bay by the alleged bomb (which later proved to be bogus).
A tense standoff ensued until Jackson, who had arrived late and was sitting in back of the stage, walked up behind Judy and said in an even voice, "What's going on?"The would-be terrorist turned and knocked Jackson down, allowing security to swoop in. Judy went to jail. Jackson, unhurt, went home.
"He told us he'd been in the Army and through foreign invasions, and he didn't think that guy had a bomb," Harold said, remembering his father's explanation to the family. "He said he wasn't afraid."
Rex Jackson didn't get any publicity for what he did — due possibly to the fact that it wasn't exactly by the book.
"That's just speculation on our part," Harold said. "But it's part of our family lore that our dad was the hero who helped save President Hunter."
It was in between and around those two flashes of headline heroism, however, that V. Rex Jackson did his real heroics — the years he spent as a builder: at work as a carpenter and at home as a husband and father who raised six adoring children.
I saw that adoration firsthand. It was a year ago, when Rex was 96, and his son took him to Alaska, and the only reason was because he'd always wanted to go.
Lee Benson's column runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com

My Dad is Gone but not Forgotten

My dad Victor Rex Jackson died Sunday night. I have mixed feelings for this event - joy and happiness! But of course I will miss him, but I am so happy he has moved on so he can be with my Mom again. He was so looking forward to that event.

His funeral is planned for Saturday at our Stake Center and his obituary is on his blog (vrjackson.blogspot.com) So long, old soldier. America is free because of what you and your generation did.

April Getaway

When Spring storms dump on you, there is only one thing to do - Get Away to Hawaii!

So that is what we did in the fourth week of April last Spring. Our good friends, Richard & Lenore Snyder who live just down the street were on the Big Island for a month and invited us to spend some time with them and their cute twin grand daughters Naomi & Alexandra.

The botanical gardens were a real paradise of color.

Can't wait to go back again!

The Big Green Truck

In the process of cleaning up the yard at Dad's house in Springville last year, it came time to dispose of the Big Green Truck. It was a 1951 International Harvester Model R-152 truck that held lots of memories for our Dad but had not run in probably 15 years. It just sat in Dad's backyard and collected snow and ice and leaves and cherries falling from the tree above it. Andrew and I toyed with the idea of restoring it but we both realized we would never get around to it. So I put an ad on Craig's list and sold it for $300 (a little more than scrap metal price)

The fellow who bought it came and took it away on a flatbed towtruck. It was kind of sad to see it go with so many memories tied up with it. Maybe you have to be a "truck guy" to understand. But Mom understood. She wrote a little book called "Harold and the Big Green Truck" and gave it to me for my birthday one year. Maybe someday I'll have it published.

More Morris's!

Madelyn Morris was born yesterday December 6th at 10:30 a.m. She weighed 8lbs. 3 oz. and measured 19 inches long and has dark hair like her momma Shirley. Verla and I paid a visit to them this morning and took this picture. Watch for more postings on the Munchkins r-Us blog.

Halloween in Nashville

We spent last week in Tennessee. Verla flew to Nashville Sat. Oct. 25th and spent the weekend with Lisa and Will. Then Tuesday Andrew & Linda picked her up and drove to Knoxville where I met them for a visit to Dollywood. We had a great time enjoying the Southern Gospel music and Harvest Festival at Dollywood on Wednesday. Thursday Andrew and I laid ceramic tile in the kitchen of their rental house in Estill Springs. Then Friday they drove us to Nashville and we enjoyed Halloween with Lisa and Will. We went to a party at their friends Amy and James house. Rex dressed as a Fireman and Ruth as a Pink Pony. Lisa was That Seventies Groovy Girl and Will was Dracula. Verla was Ceasar's wife and I was Bob the Builder.

And Now There Are Twelve

Yes, another Jackson grandchild. Evelyn Grace Jackson was born October 12, 2008 to Glenn & Sara Jackson in Columbia, Missouri. We're waiting to get more pictures of her, hopefully with her eyes open.