Ben Overstreet badly wanted to play football, but when he started his senior year at Gulf High School in 1949, he stood 5-feet-5 and weighed 105 pounds.
Ben made the team, but as equipment manager, not player. He cheered from the sidelines and brought the other boys water.
His time would come.
As a boy, Ben had dreamed of piloting airplanes so he joined the Air Force. At first, he was a clerk typist, but in 1953 he qualified for flight training and went on to become a war hero earning a Silver Star
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(READ the full story in the Tampa Bay Times)