Dr. David Fisher, World War II Army veteran and lifelong educator, joined Jan Swift of Discover Lafayette, to discuss his storied life and the many adventures he has enjoyed in his 94 years.

We salute this hero among us who on October 2, 1945, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his extraordinary service in the Pacific Theatre. Well-known for his lifelong dedication to education, he and his family are the proprietors of Fisher Early Childhood Education Centers in Lafayette

While his birthplace, the community of Evangeline, is no longer on the map, he recalled a happy childhood in the town that was the first site of the drilling of an oil well in Louisiana. For the story of that first oil discovery and commercial well drilled in Louisiana in 1901, visit http://www.energyglobalnews.com/jennings-oilfield-the-birthplace-of-louisianas-oil-industry-in-1901/.)

Born in 1925, his grandfather and father worked for Gulf Oil, and the town was full of shallow oil wells. Dr. Fisher remembers learning how to swim with the other kids in the salt dome tanks filled with the water diverted from the wells as drilling occurred. It was a time for simple pleasures. But his life would change at the age of 10 when his mother died from double pneumonia. The family moved to the "big town of Jennings" nearby soon thereafter and he lived with his grandparents.

David Fisher in 1927

After graduating from Jennings High School in 1943, Dr. Fisher joined the Army when he turned 18 and he trained to be a radio operator. He was placed on a B-29 crew and stationed in Guam, flying 22 missions over Japan.

It is not common knowledge that WWII didn't end with the dropping of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When Japanese Emperor Hirohito refused to unconditionally surrender to the Allied Forces, the Last Combat Mission was flown on the evening of August 14, 1945. Dr. Fisher's crew was on one of the B-29's that strategically targeted the bombing of transportation centers and factories in Japan in this last effort to end the war. When their plane ran short on fuel on the return to Guam, they were forced to land in Iwo Jima, and that is where Dr. Fisher and crew learned on August 15, 1945, that the Japanese had finally surrendered.

Happy to see the war successfully completed, Dr. Fisher was honorably discharged on November 22, 1945. He returned to Louisiana and enrolled at SLI (Southwestern Louisiana Institute) at the age of 20 in the Spring of 1946, and happily recalls how he met his future wife, Shirley, when "she was in her last semester and he was in his first."

David Fisher and Shirley Rhodes Fisher during their college days.SLI Football Team Captain David Fisher in the 1940s.Shirley Rhodes and David Fisher at SLI Homecoming 1946.

Although he had never seen a college football game before he attended SLI, Dr. Fisher had a "successful athletic career" as he put it, and served as Captain of the football team. He was the youngest person on the team, as most of the players had served longer than him during WWII and were in their middle 20's and older. He also excelled in track, served as Co-Captain of the team, and tried out for the Olympics. As one of the youngest players, he recalls he was also one of the youngest in his air crew while serving during the war.

Fisher's athletic prowess was noticed by the pros, and he was drafted by the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Colts but declined, as he was more interested in returning home to Jennings where he had accepted a job as Assistant Coach at Jennings High. Dr. Fisher noted that at that time, professional football players weren't as highly compensated as they are now and he has never looked back on that chapter of his life.