BLOOMBURG, TX -
Omer
Bowman is part of the Buena Vista High School class of 1962, but his diploma is
dated 2011. The school system, located in Imperial, Texas, presented Omer with
his diploma late last year, nearly 50 years after he walked across the stage
with his classmates.
"That
high school diploma may not mean much to many people, but for me, I've been
looking for that for 50 years. I'm a certified graduate now," Omer said in a
January 2012 interview.
The
Superintendent of the school system traveled 500 miles to personally present
Omer with his diploma. Fifty years earlier, only a half of a credit in Algebra
kept him from receiving it. After graduating, Omer went off to the Vietnam War,
where he earned a number of medals, including the Purple Heart. But those too
would be delayed.
"They
got lost in the cross hairs, and then 33 years later, I got my purple heart and
the other medals," Omer said.
Sometime
amid the gunfire and constant siege, Omer earned that last half of a credit
while in the US Army, but he never returned to get his diploma. Instead, Omer
would work in the oil field and in carpentry to support his family. He said it
was important to him that all of his children and grandchildren get the diploma
he never did. Omer even thinks he could have gone to college had he had the
diploma after the war, but that doesn't mean he would live his life any
differently.
"I'm
happy with the life I had, you know. Sometimes it was tough, real tough, but I got
a good wife and a good family. That's all a man can ask for," Omer said. "My
biggest life achievement? My family. I believe that takes the cake… [The medals
and certificate], They're all good but your family, you know, that's it."
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