When Polio Strikes --

The Heroic Death

of

Navy Fighter Pilot,

 Lt. James Olin Chiles

"Greater love hath no man than this, 

that a man lay down his life for his friends."

John 15:13

My father, Lt. James Olin Chiles,

died of Polio on July 28, 1949.

This was during the days of the great Polio epidemic which

paralyzed the nation . . . literally.

People were afraid of polio back then similar to the way

that people fear HIV today.

 Dorothy Chiles with the "Death Log" of  her husband, Lt. James Olin Chiles

The following article is a "picture" of the actual script which was read

by the CBS News Correspondent of the Day, Charles Collingwood.

It was read on the CBS National News

on the day my father was buried -- August 2, 1949.

Articles were written about my Dad from coast to coast,

including the New York Times and in Newsweek and Life Magazines.

The following articles are interesting, 

not only because they describe the bravery of this single man,

but because it describes what was known about polio at that time.

I was seven months old when my father died.

By the time I started the first grade,

the vaccine for polio had been invented. 

My sister and I were among the first children

to be given the vaccine.

Summary of facts relating to James Olin Chiles' Death by Polio, as described on his Death Certificate

I am very proud of his story being placed in the Upper Room Devotion Book --

the very Devotional Book which my parents read

each night before they went to bed together.

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