I received sad news this week, that former Kaufman County Judge Wayne Gent passed away. Judge Gent served for a total of 20 years in a split term as Kaufman County Judge. He has a distinction that will never be matched. He was the second to last Judge to serve Kaufman County as a Democrat and the first Republican Kaufman County Judge.
I was privileged to serve as Kaufman County Commissioner for 8 years with Judge Gent.
During his term, Kaufman County went through some big changes. Under his leadership the county made a historic trade with the Kaufman Economic Development Corporation of land near the old County Jail. The county received a large piece of land south of Hwy. 175 in the trade. The immediate need was a County Jail and Law Enforcement Center and an intermediate need was a Courts Building. The county did a master plan on the property and not only built a new Jail and Law Enforcement Center, but we also planned for the eventual addition of a Courts Building that will soon be completed.
Judge Gent loves his family intensely. I say that in the present tense because it is inconceivable that he has stopped simply because his life on Earth is over. He was a proud alumnus of Texas A&M and Texas Tech and an even prouder Marine, having served as a sniper in Vietnam.
Sometimes you hear of a story so remarkable that you think you would have liked to have been a fly on the wall just to witness it. What I am about to tell is just that kind of story, and I was there to witness it and tell it.
This particular day, Judge Gent had asked me to attend a meeting with someone who had business with the county. It was his custom to often have one of the four County Commissioners to attend just such a meeting.
I wish so much that I could remember the name of the man we met with, or even what business he had with the county, but I simply don’t remember. But that won’t hinder me from telling the most important part of the meeting.
After introductions and a discussion of the issue the man needed to bring to the county, our guest pointed at the model of an F-4 Fantom jet airplane that Judge Gent famously kept on the window sill of his office. He asked the Judge why it was there and explained that he had flown F-4s in Vietnam. Judge Gent explained that it was there to remind him of the F-4 pilot that saved his life after he had been wounded, wounds that led to Marine Wayne Gent being awarded the Purple Heart. He said the pilot kept the enemy at bay until he could be rescued.
The man was visibly shaken and asked, “When and where did that happen?”
The Judge told him the exact date and where. The man became emotional and said, “I was that pilot.”
At that point Judge Gent was both emotional and shocked at the same time and, their conversation was as Shakespeare described “…in their flowing cups freshly remembered.”
After exchanging more details that only the two warriors would know, Judge Gent got up from his desk shook hands with the pilot who had given him cover in a rice paddy across the Pacific when both of them were young men. They then engaged in a long embrace as decades passed away. Behind them was a famous print on the wall of the Judge’s office of an old man in a suit at the Vietnam Wall, crying and touching the wall. The reflection on the wall is not of the old man, but of a band of young soldiers in combat gear touching the old man’s hand.
In that moment I didn’t see the two soldiers in front of me as middle-aged men. I saw two young warriors who had longed for this moment for half a lifetime.
Judge Gent told that story often and sometimes called on me to validate its accuracy. I understand the two men stayed in touch long after that meeting.
Rest In Peace Judge, your tour is over.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘Tomorrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
From Henry V, Act IV,
Scene III
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