We ignore janitors and service workers for the most part. When we need something fixed or cleaned up for us, sure, we will take immediate notice of them. Otherwise, many people feel that the best janitors and cleaners are the ones that do the job and are not ever noticed. That was the case of Bill Crawford. Bill was employed at the United States Air Force Academy in Boulder, Colorado, in the 1970s as a janitor. And he went about his tasks of cleaning up after the cadets and the instructors without fanfare and without notice.

But the job was a pleasure for Bill. He was a native of Colorado, born and raised in Pueblo itself, in fact. Bill took on the job of janitor in his retirement for a specific reason: He believed in the work that the US military was doing to make the world a safer, better place, and he felt that if he could, even in his small way, help educate a new generation of officers for the nation, then that would be the least he could do to show his appreciation for their service. You see, Bill was a patriot.

And the cadets at the academy and the staff seemed to sense Bill’s pride that he took in his humble role. Oh, Bill never boasted about helping out; it was the opposite, in fact. He went about his job quietly, almost unseen. Yet, there was a certain way he carried himself as he mopped or swept or cleaned the facilities that caused others to notice him. He was always dressed neatly–shirt tucked in, trousers pressed and creased, and hair neatly cut and combed. The students and staff, rather than calling him simply “Janitor” or by his first name, often called him “Mr. Crawford,” adding the title “mister” because, well, the honorific seemed to fit Bill.

There was something else about Bill that stood out to at least a few of the cadets there. Those pressed clothes. The neatness about him. The quiet confidence he showed. A few of the young men (women first entered the academy about that time, in 1976) talked among themselves and decided that Bill had to be former military. He had to be. Now, back then, there wasn’t the internet where you could easily look up someone or do some quick digging on a person’s background. No, one of the students took it upon himself to go to the academy library to see what he could find about Bill. And what he found astounded him.

Taking the book out of the library, the inquisitive young man named James Moschgat (academy class of 1977) found Bill cleaning out a restroom and showed him the information. “Is this you?” James asked the janitor. Bill raised his chin and looked at the ceiling a moment as if contemplating whether or not to admit what up until that moment he alone knew. “That was a long time ago,” Bill said, “and only one day out of my life.” Bill lowered his head to look at the young man.

“But it’s you, right?” James persisted. Bill nodded in acknowledgement that it was. “Holy crap,” James said under his breath. “Holy crap.”

“Yes,” Bill said. “Holy crap, indeed.”

Bill Crawford died in 2000 and was buried at the Air Force Academy, the place where he loved the last job he had and did it well. Interestingly, Bill Crawford was not in the Air Force He was a private in the US Army in World War 2. And he is the only person who served as an enlisted man in the US Army to be buried there.

And that’s because William Crawford, the humble janitor, won the Medal of Honor–the highest award for bravery in the United States–in Italy during World War 2.