A Nurse Asked John Wayne to Visit One Patient — He Stayed for Every Single One

Honolulu, 1964. Margaret Selby had been a military nurse for sixteen years. She ran a ward at Tripler Army Medical Center with thirty-one patients — men who had come back from Southeast Asia and needed more than the field could provide. One of them was a twenty-two-year-old corporal from Bakersfield named Danny Kowalski. He hadn't had a visitor in six weeks. His favorite film was The Searchers. Margaret Selby made a phone call. John Wayne's office called back within two days. He would be in Honolulu the following week. He could give one hour. She said one hour would be more than generous. He arrived at 8:55. He was six feet four and he came alone — no publicist, no photographer, no one. He shook her hand. She said she would take him to bed seven. He looked down the length of the ward. Thirty-one beds. Thirty-one men. Some watching television. Some staring at the ceiling. Some looking at him. Then he said something she hadn't expected. He said he wanted to know who was in bed one. He left the ward at 1:19 in the afternoon. Four hours and seventeen minutes after he arrived. He had sat in the chair beside every single bed.