They’re all gone now. All his bomber crew. The letters stopped years ago, the reunions stopped before that, and of the eight surviving members of that haunting mission — the ninth, the pilot, was killed that day over Germany — Charley Winner is the only one left.
It’s July 4 on Saturday, a day for American patriots, so let’s tell of the Miami Dolphin who was a hero far beyond the sports pages.
Before Winner was in the Dolphins’ front office for a decade, before he helped stock the roster as director of personnel during Don Shula’s Super Bowl runs in the 1980s, before he was the St.