A SPECIAL badge and a row of medals will give Kobey-Flynn Hudec a reason to march extra tall this ANZAC day.
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The 13-year-old Xavier High School student takes a keen interest in World War II and aeroplanes, which struck a cord with the late Walter ‘Wally’ Biles.
Wally was a WWII flight sergeant who Kobey-Flynn met this time last year.
A free drink voucher and a long conversation was all it took for the two to become friends.
Weeks later, Wally died just two days before his 92nd birthday.
The connection between the pair, born 80 years apart, was so strong Wally bequeathed his RAAF badge to Kobey-Flynn.
Although they only ever met once, the year eight student said it would be an “honour” to sport the badge and some of Wally's medals during Albury's ANZAC Day March.
“I think about him a lot,” Kobey said.
“Not a day passes where I don't think why I couldn't have finished my drawing and model sooner so I could have given them to Wally.
“Being asked to wear his medals is honourable.”
Kobey-Flynn said he remembered first meeting Wally at the SS&A Club, where he asked about his medals.
They discussed the war and life as a ‘gunner’ who ‘pumped zeros out of the sky’.
Kobey-Flynn had been preparing a drawing and a model B-24 Liberator plane, which ended up giving to Wally's wife Pat last year.
The pair still keep in touch and sat in Mrs Biles’ loungeroom on Friday, where they looked through old military photos.
They tried to spot Wally among the other pilots and exchanged information on everything they had learned about planes, the war and the airfileds.
Mrs Biles, who served as a pay clerk in the Australian Air Force, said Kobey-Flynn would wear Wally's smaller set of medals.
“I'm very fond of Kobey, even though I haven't known him for long,” she said.
“There's just something special between us all.
“Wally was one of the last, if not the last, left from his squadron.
“He never opened up to anybody like he did with Kobey.”
A year on from their first meeting, Kobey-Flynn plans to present another model aeroplane, with a ‘W’ for Wally on it, to Mrs Biles on ANZAC Day.
Along with his mother, Justine Gilson, they will all meet back where it all started at the SS&A Club.
Both Mrs Biles and Kobey-Flynn agreed Wally would be at the forefront of their minds on that special day this year.
