'Stone Phillips: 15 Years of Dateline'

"Soldier in the War," 1992
Tennessee Curtiss was seven years old and so petite, but her courage was enormous.

Stone Phillips: Do you know that you're a very important person?
Tennessee Curtiss: Mm-hm.
Stone Phillips: Why do you think you're an important person?
Tennessee Curtiss: Because I have cancer.
Stone Phillips: What kind of cancer do you have?  Do you know?
Tennessee Curtiss: Neuroblastoma.
Stone Phillips: What do you know about neuroblastoma?
Tennessee Curtiss: It's just cancer cells.  That's all it is.

With no hope of beating her own deadly cancer, she was taking experimental drugs in hopes of someday helping others.

Stone Phillips: Is it true that you have a boyfriend here at the hospital?
Tennessee Curtiss: Yep.  He's redheaded and he's my age.

How could any boy resist? Tennessee had already planned her own funeral. She wanted to be buried in her pink dress.   But she never stopped talking about her dreams.

Tennessee Curtiss: I want to be a ballerina, tap dancer, cop or a doctor.
Stone Phillips: You're going to have to make up your mind.  You can't be all of those things.
Tennessee Curtiss: I can't--I can't make up my mind, but--later on, I'll make up my mind right quick.
Stone Phillips: Good luck, kid.  Good luck.

"Die Hard" 2000
At age 78, Frank Bigelow had had more near trips to the hereafter than anyone you'll ever meet.  

Frank Bigelow: I got run over by a train when I was 20 months old.
Stone Phillips: And you survived?
Frank Bigelow: I'm still here.

His encounter with a Great Northern freight train was just the beginning. A Navy veteran of World War II, Frank survived the Bataan death march, disease in one Japanese POW camp, and a near beheading in another -- not to mention the makeshift amputation of a leg without anesthesia. 

Painful as it was, Frank credits the fellow prisoner who performed the crude operation with saving his life.

Frank Bigelow: He had a hacksaw blade, and a razor blade, and he had some knives. And I asked him before he started operating on me, “Doc you got a drink of whiskey and a couple of aspirins you could give me?” He said “If I had ‘em, I'd take ‘em myself.” He was one of the finest men and finest doctors that ever lived and I'll never forget him for it.

His next close call came on August 9, 1945. Still a prisoner of war, Frank looked across the bay from Japan's Camp No. 17 to the city of Nagasake.  And what caught his attention?

Stone Phillips:  You saw the mushroom cloud?
Frank Bigelow:  Yeah, we saw it.  Right under it.

Gazing at a war memorial he helped build in his community, Frank Bigelow felt blessed. His service and sacrifice was just part of being an American.

Frank Bigelow: That flag means a great deal to me.  I fly it at home every day of my life.  I salute that flag every night before I go to bed.
Stone Phillips: It's a hell of a thing you've been through.
Frank Bigelow: Yeah, but I sure thank God every day of my life for being right here.  Every day.

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