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Retired Air Force Capt. Gerald D. Binks lies in bed at St. John's Living Center on Tuesday with his wife Mary Lynn Yose Binks and American Legion Post 43 Commander David Bentlage at his side. The 87–year–old World War II veteran piloted B-17 bombers over Germany and was shot down and captured in 1944. Capt. Binks, originally from Casper, suffers from congestive heart failure. "It's time for me to go off to the happy hunting ground," Binks said. NEWS&GUIDE PHOTO / PRICE CHAMBERS

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They call him the Amazing Mr. Binks.

Pilot of up to 20 missions in World War II.

Survivor of German POW camps.

Worker in the oil industry until he was 82 years old.

Fighter, defying odds eight times this year after being admitted by ambulance to St. John’s Medical Center.

Every time he returned home.

And now the Amazing Mr. Binks is dying.

He won’t return home this time, but he won’t be forgotten.

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On Tuesday, Veterans Day members of American Legion Post 43 and staff from the Living Center at St. John’s gathered at the Hitching Post, a hospital housing annex, with Gerald Binks’ wife, Mary Lynn Yose Binks, to dedicate a flag in his honor.

Most who come to the Hitching Post stay a day or two while a loved one gets treatment at St. John’s. Then they move on, said Rosemary Guderian, assistant manager.

Mary Lynn Binks was different, staying often in the last few years for extended amounts of time, while Gerald Binks, 87, battled a leaking heart, fighting for enough strength to be released to his home in Big Piney.

Guderian learned of Gerald Binks’ service in World War II while talking with his wife. It reminded her of her own family’s military history.

“As time goes by, we forget,” she said. “How easy it is to slip away.”

Guderian wanted to do something for Mary Lynn Binks. What she wanted most was an honor for her husband.

The flag, commemorated with a plaque, will be a reminder to every one of those who have served, and also to those fighting for the United States, Guderian said.

“It brings it forward,” she said.

At the Hitching Post, every night, long after Gerald Binks has died, Guderian will take a moment to remember him and all those who have served when she brings in “Gerry’s flag.”

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Gerald Binks was born in Illinois in 1921. He joined the Air Corps when he was 19, flying B-17s. Out of superstition his squadron refused medals. Too many who accepted medals didn’t return from later missions.

In February 1944 his plane was shot down. He bailed out and landed undetected in German-occupied land. He was taken underground by those aiding Allied forces.

For months he moved from house to house in hiding. But in early summer information was leaked to the Gestapo and Binks was captured. Before he was taken away, he watched as a couple who had helped him were executed. After telling his wife the story, he rarely brought up his service again, only mentioning how proud he was, especially on Veterans Day.

Binks was taken to Liege, Belgium, where he was held as a prisoner of war before being shipped to a prison camp in North Berlin. There he survived using cardboard for blankets, eating rotting sausage and drinking wine made from prunes and raisins, fermented in sauerkraut barrels.

He was liberated by the Russians in 1945.

He left the Air Force a captain and made his way to Wyoming.

He met Mary Lynn Yose in 1979 in Big Piney. He was polite, always opening doors, pulling out chairs.

He was a charmer, known for leaving people with the phrase “Glad you got to see me.”

“He was better looking than Clark Gable, I’d say,” Mary Lynn Binks said.

And now he lies in a bed at the Living Center. Arms limp, skin loose and spotted with age.

Tubes in his nose and a pillow supporting his neck. His heart, damaged long ago by scarlet fever he contracted while in hiding, is failing. For almost five years the valves in his heart have been leaking.

The last three years Gerald Binks and his wife have spent seemingly as much time in the Living Center at St. John’s as they have in their Big Piney home.

But every time, Binks fought on, finding courage somewhere deep within to take a step with a walker, to gain enough power to go home.

They call him the Amazing Mr. Binks because he is so determined, because he always pulls through, his wife said.

But not this time.

About a week ago, the couple again arrived at St. John’s.

Your heart isn’t going to last much longer, the doctor told Gerald Binks. You put up one hell of a fight. It’s time to sit back and be comfortable.

And the Amazing Mr. Binks told his wife, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to go.”

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When he was healthy, Gerald Binks and his wife always attended American Legion events in Big Piney on Veterans Day. He always said how proud he was to serve his country.

On Sunday, he started asking if it was Veterans Day yet.

While he didn’t say it, it seemed Gerald Binks was waiting, maybe for one last Veterans Day, his wife said.

On Monday, the doctor came in with his medication. He declined treatment other than pain pills.

That day Guderian brought in the plaque that would commemorate the flag. His mind was tired, but still there.

A tear rolled down his cheek as he looked at his legacy.

“Isn’t that nice?” Mary Lynn Binks asked. “Isn’t that an honor?”

He nodded.

“You are very special,” she said.

He shook his head.

“Yes you are. You are very much loved.”

He nodded. The machines hissed. Mary Lynn Binks ran her hand over his arm. “My hero.”

“Don’t go crazy over me,” he said.

“I will,” she said. “People have to know.”

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Even at his sickest, Gerald never complained. He always thanked his nurses.

And while the tears he never shed as a younger man now come frequently, he still never complains.

His pain is only audible by the slight moans as doctors change the bandages where the toe that was amputated a month ago used to be.

His wife reminded him he could ask for a pain pill.

Maybe I will, he said.

But he never asks for anything.

His white T-shirt flutters briefly with each breath. He was always so big and strong.

“Nothing could get that man,” Mary Lynn Binks said.

His nephew always called him the Energizer Bunny.

This week, Gerald Binks asked his wife to call that nephew and tell him, sorry, the batteries are running out.

He couldn’t make it to the service honoring him Tuesday. He watched Veterans Day proceedings earlier in the day on the TV, tears running down his face.

Mary Lynn Binks went to the Hitching Post in his place.

He was asleep when she left. She put a scrap of lined paper on his chest.

“I’ll be back soon,” it said, signed with a heart.

Members of Jackson’s American Legion arrived in uniform. The sight broke Mary Lynn Binks, even as she told the story of his service and capture.

“He’s 87 years old right now and struggling for his life,” she said.

“He looks like a fighter,” Legion Cmdr. David Bentlage said, looking at a photograph.

Outside they gathered, saluting the flag. Mary Lynn Binks’ face crumpled, a hand clutching the pole. The red and white stripes fluttered in the wind. She touched the plaque before heading inside.

“He’ll be so overwhelmed,” she said. “And then he’ll die, I know. And that’s OK. It’s time.”

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Gerald Binks was waiting at the Living Center in a button-down shirt.

“Happy Veterans Day, captain,” said Legion member Dennis Lamb, kneeling by the bed.

“It’s a pleasure sir,” said Ryan Blair, another serviceman.

“Thank you for serving,” said member Joy Lamb.

Binks’ eyes were wide, glazed with tears.

His wife leaned in to tell him about the flag.

“It’s for us,” she said.

His breath labored a moment before he mumbled, “I thank all of you.”

“We’re honored sir.”

And then each Legion member stood before the bed and saluted, one at a time, before turning briskly and walking out.

Each time, Gerald Binks raised his arm from the blankets, shaking fingers finding his brow in return.

“To be in the presence of a man who was decades ago imprisoned and put his life on the line for my future – it was a great honor to meet that man on one of his last days and say thank you,” Bentlage said.

Mary Lynn Binks will visit the flag every year on Veterans Day.

“I will make this my place to honor him,” she said.

She will draw on his strength and courage to get through the loss she knows is coming.

When she hears the national anthem, or sees a flag, she will remember how brave he was in that prison camp, never knowing what the next day would bring. He survived.

Today, she can see in his eyes the defeat, the knowing this is a battle he cannot win.

She asked him this week if he believes in God.

Because there is a God up there who is going to take care of you so you won’t suffer anymore, she said.

I know, he said. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. But I’m glad I’ve met you.

I know, she said. You better be.

In him, she still sees a man who will always be a fighter – the Amazing Mr. Binks.