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Remembering Howe alumni’s first war casualty
knew how important it was that those planes stay airworthy, Tony might have been able to get away for a little rest, but he elected to stay on the job he was doing magnificently The shells had been exploding all around our airfield for 10 or 15 days when Tony finally got it But his death did not go unavenged The same planes that Tony had helped put back in the air had blasted those Jap guns Tony was just a boy, but he was doing a man’s job ”
From the archives of the Howe Enterprise Originally published in the Memorial Day publication of Monday, May 26, 2014
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Tony Weber Brinkley entered the US Navy as a 16-year-old Howe High School graduate in December 1942 He wanted to serve his country that was deep in the midst of World War II Sixteen months later, he lost his life in the Southwest Pacific
Brinkley, a Howe native, was born to Joe and Lillie Brinkley He was a star football player that lettered four years for the Bulldogs and led them to a district championship and bi-district playoff tie as their quarterback and “coach ” Because of the war, Howe had no head coach, so the team coached themselves and Brinkley called the plays and helped structure the practices
Brinkley was an aviation machinist’s mate, third class and was the first Howe High School graduate to be lost during World War II
His father had passed away before he entered the Navy, therefore, his widowed mother received the news on a Thursday afternoon that Brinkley had died in the service of his country and his remains were buried in allied territory, outside of continental limits The message requested that no information on names or location be given It was later publicized that Brinkley was killed on Bougainville Island
Lt Stuart Dyckman, USNR, of Dallas told the story about the casualty of Brinkley
Dyckman said in 1944: “Tony was an aviation metalsmith It was his job to help repair the fuselages of our fighter and bomber planes when they returned from battling the Japs from the air The job was a grind The planes were coming in and going out all the time. Tony worked and worked fast from 12 to 14 hours a day The pace of the job would have been enough, but the Japs on the island got the range of the airfield and were dropping shells on it trying to wreck the installations
Sometimes the shells hit pretty close, but Tony kept at his job. He
Finally, in July 1948, Brinkley was given a military reburial The dedication was held at First Baptist Church in Howe (where Skinner Plumbing Supply now sits at 200 S Denny St ) The Rev Lowell Brinkley, chaplain of the HughesBrinkley Legion Post of Howe officiated He was formally buried at Hall Cemetery in Howe
Brinkley was a classmate, teammate and fellow World War II veteran with L B Kirby who is Howe’s own most decorated living veteran in the state of Texas, with
Bougainville Island “They did a lot of repairs from the ships I never saw how they landed on those ships I still don’t know how, but they did every time They’d repair them and back up they’d go ” said Kirby “I was on a land operation He was in the Navy and I was in the Army I wish we’d have been able to stay together”
Kirby figured that if the officers wouldn’t let them communicate, it was because if one would have been shot, the other friend would have been there to try and rescue him and ended up with two casualties instead of one
Kirby remembers that he would get really upset when he came back and people were laughing at some of the war veterans that came home after the war
“People didn’t understand what we were doing over there One man asked me, ‘how was the hunting’? I said, ‘there was no hunting We killed people and they tried to kill us ’ They didn’t really realize what combat really was I didn’t even seven Bronze Stars, two Bronze Arrowheads and a Purple Heart, awarded for his service in the Army during World War II Kirby often gets teary-eyed when discussing his friend Tony Brinkley
“What I remember most about Tony is that he was a leader He would always step to the front,” Kirby said in an interview in 2014 “He was good at calling the plays We won Tony was an exception He very seldom ever mentioned what he did, whether football or any sport ”
Kirby would have liked to have been with Brinkley during the war but recalls that the officers wouldn’t let friends be together under any circumstances “I never got to see him or talk to him or anything I don’t know why, but they didn’t like old friends to talk to each other. I never understood that What would it have hurt? Combat or not, it didn’t make a lot of a difference ” said Kirby
Kirby talked about the job that Brinkley had to do off the coast of realize what it was But it doesn’t take you all day to learn War is a dangerous thing War is a business of killing people and being killed We understood that there were going to be people that were going to be trying to kill us That’s what our job was, killing people It’s a dirty business ”
Tony Brinkley is a name that most Howe citizens don’t recognize However, the sacrifice he made for his country is enormous and the leader that he was should be an inspiration to all of this community
He was only a kid
