There are self anointed heroes and then there are true American heroes. My uncle, George Renard, was one of the latter. He said goodbye at the age of 90 to an appreciative world over the Memorial Day weekend. I thought about it; that's how a simple soldier would have wanted it.

His favorite expression was "You have to have the paperwork." Like so many who fought the big one, WWII, the war he jokingly referred to as "the big one in all the newspapers," you couldn't talk about your actions in World War II unless you had the paperwork.

There were two ways to get the paperwork. One was to collect a handful of Purple Hearts and a Silver Star as my father did and the other was to have the documentation, which my uncle did.

George Renard was a navigator and bombardier, attached to the 310th Bomb Group, 379th Squadron which was assigned to support Doolittle's Raiders. He flew 49 missions in the European Theater (Africa, Sicily and Italy) from June 1943 to March 1944.

A close friend of mine, speaker, author and retired Two Star Rear Admiral Roger Gilbertson, once told me how remarkable that feat was. "That was double the allowable number of missions you were permitted to fly," Gilbertson told me. "That's unheard of!" I showed him my uncle's navigator's log and he was even more impressed at the accomplishment.

There were so many remarkable stories my uncle would share with anyone who had an interest in the military. My three sons, Cory, Jason and Christopher would sit and marvel at all the war stories that he and my father would share.

My dad took four bullets on four separate occasions and had the Purple Hearts and a Silver Star to show for it. My sons would marvel when he would show them his helmet where a bullet entered the front, literally went around his scalp and exited the rear of the helmet. If you didn't have the helmet to prove it you wouldn't believe that was possible.

That was George Renard's mantra. You have to have the proof before you can talk about your experiences. "You gotta have the paperwork!" he quipped. The late, great baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean once said, "When you done it, it ain't braggin'."

Though he clearly was a true American hero, Uncle George never saw himself in that way. He fashioned himself as a simple soldier who carried out his orders. Period. No heroics, no drama... just an everyday GI Joe.

As I read through my uncle's memoirs in the Navigator's log, you could not help but note the respect he had for the opposition. He never referred to the enemy in derogatory terms, but I could not help but notice that he never once spelled Germany with a capital "G."

Two things jumped out at me as I read my uncle's log of the 49 missions flown. The first was his remarkably beautiful handwriting, no doubt a by-product of a lot of knuckle-wrapping by the nuns in Catholic School in his native Cleveland.

The other thing that was extraordinary was his modest description of the events of every mission. On June 10, 1943, he wrote "We went back to Pantelleria again today (42 planes 3 X 1000 lbs. of bombs) and that place is sure taking a beating. I don't know what's holding that island up."

Before boarding for a critical mission in December of 1943, a young and feisty Captain Schwartz queried Uncle George: "How many missions do you have Sergeant?" My uncle answered "Forty eight sir… and how many do you have?" He only had three or four, and that fact caused a lot of uneasy laughter; but it put an end to the Captain's piercing questions.

After the fact, a Major Keller, whose "Leaking Lucy" airplane was used on that critical mission, chewed Schwartz out and told him if he didn't have Renard they would have to fly 30 planes back to find that turnstile and destroy it."

My uncle's love for the military and his country was second only to his love and devotion to his wife, my dear sweet Aunt Olga. I only hope a pray that my devotion to my spouse is but a fraction of what my aunt and uncle felt for one another for nearly seven decades they were married.

Perhaps that is the greatest memorial of all. We will all miss you Uncle George. Thanks for sharing the paperwork!