The truth is always there. No matter what the lie, what the deception, the truth exists. It is immortal. The truth is patient, it is unpredictable and, if need be, it will recruit innocent bystanders to help bring it to light.
The truth that came to light last week regarded a friend and colleague, and it was just as gut-wrenching as the news three years ago that legendary boxing writer Pat Putnam had died.
The innocent bystanders recruited into this revelation were Anthony and Lamont Peterson, the boxing brothers from the District whose story is so inspiring they were honored Thursday by the Boxing Writers Association of America with an award given for perseverance in overcoming adversity.
The award was named for Putnam, the longtime Sports Illustrated boxing writer, because of the power of his own story — an ex-Marine who spent 17 months in a Chinese POW camp during the Korean War, a man who earned four Purple Hearts and the Navy Cross, a man who as a result of those trials lived with pain for the rest of his life.
It was, his friends and colleagues believed, a story that should not be forgotten.
Putnam would have been better off if nobody remembered.
Bernard Fernandez, a sportswriter at the Philadelphia Daily News and the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, wrote a column about the award and the Petersons last week before the group’s dinner in Los Angeles.
“I was not aware of who Pat Putnam was,” Anthony Peterson told Fernandez. “But from what I have found out about him, he sounds like he was a very special man. He overcame so much.”
That was before several watchdogs who look into claims of war heroism checked out Putnam. They found no record of service. A story in the Marine Corps Times on Friday reported that Putnam’s name does not exist in Marine Corps Archival Tapes, a list of veterans that covers Corps history until about 1970, or in any Marine medals databases.
Putnam’s inspiring story wasn’t true. He had suffered his back injury in a car accident and for unknown reasons began telling his war story about 50 years ago. At some point, it was to late to turn back.
“From what I understand, this started out as a lark,” Colleen Putnam told Fernandez. “Then it started to grow and grow until it got out of hand. He never talked about any of this, not to me, not to my kids. My father was Irish. He liked to tell stories. He was a funny man. This was a story he just should never have told.”
The story was too good to put away when Putnam died in 2005 — hence the award the Peterson brothers received Thursday night. Fernandez was alerted to the problem earlier in the week, so Putnam’s name was not mentioned in the presentation at the dinner and will be removed from future awards.
But Putnam’s name is on the award the Peterson brothers received, and they still don’t know who he was.
It’s possible the Petersons are a little disillusioned after this experience, but after what they have seen in their lives, they are under no illusions about this world.
They grew up on the streets of the District. Their father was sent to jail on drug charges when Anthony was 7 and Lamont 8, and their mother was left to care for seven children by herself. And so the brothers shuffled between foster care and living on the streets.
They found salvation in a boxing gym and in a tough but caring trainer named Barry Hunter, who saw the talent in the brothers and watched over them, instilling the values of hard work and determination.
The Petersons have risen from those streets to become contenders for the lightweight and junior welterweight world championships. They are on the verge of becoming stars, with major fights coming up in June and July.
Hunter said they learned about the Putnam controversy only when they were on their way to the dinner.
“It was awkward, but the reality is that the award is for perseverance, and Anthony and Lamont can identify with that because they did go through troubled times,” Hunter said. “They had told us before that about Pat, and his story was very compelling. Unfortunately, it is what it is now. It really had nothing to do with them.”
They deserved better than to be recruited into this sad truth — and it is a sad truth for those who truly suffered as POWs and earned medals for service to their country.
It also is a sad truth for Putnam’s family and friends, including myself. It is as if he died all over again.
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