Heroes -- Every One!
by Robert Yoho
"Eye on Conservatism"
Sometime
after America entered World War II, the Secretary of the Navy, Col. Frank Knox,
received a letter from an 80-year old man in San Francisco. In his letter, George
Sanderson, who retired in 1922 after 40 years in the Navy, announced that he
was in good health and ready to re-enter the service.
Of
course, Secretary Knox (right) turned the man down, but he also sent Sanderson
a kind letter praising the elderly gentlemen for his patriotism.
This unique brand of patriotism was commonplace in the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Although many Americans knew very little about the nation of Japan--much of the country had never seen or spoken to a Japanese citizen--they were morally outraged that any foreign government would dare to attack and kill our young American servicemen who were stationed at Pearl Harbor.
In order to get in the war, young men lied about their age and elderly men tried to convince military officials that they were still physically fit and ready for battle. That was the America we knew in the 1940s, with thousands of young men placing the needs of the country ahead of their individual desires. Those were certainly extraordinary times in which to live.
But not everyone who returned from Europe or the South Pacific felt a great sense of pride over what they accomplished in World War II. These are the silent ones, the reluctant heroes who do not care to repeat their experiences. Their closest friends--men with whom they served and often faced death--gave their lives in the air, on the seas, or upon the fields of battle.
It has been said that time heals all wounds, but that is not always the case. Some of these men still carry the scars of battle fifty-six years later.
As they walk into their living rooms and dens, the remembrances of the war are everywhere for you to see. There are books and videotapes relating to sea, land, and aerial warfare. The walls of their homes are adorned with paintings of tanks, battleships, or their planes. And when these aging veterans talk about their ships and planes--the vehicles that transported them to battle, protected them during the conflict, and carried them home again--they often describe them with nearly human attributes.
From off the mantle, you will see them remove a cherished picture of their friends, shipmates, or fellow crewmembers. They are young, smiling, and confident. Perhaps some of them died while they were on a mission. These aging veterans will often tell you a brief story about each one of them. You may even see them wipe away a tear, if they think you aren’t looking. Those of us who have never seen combat will never know the bonds that are forged between men whose lives depend on each other.
The war brought men together from many different cultures--men who would never have known each other except for war--the tough kid from the streets of Chicago, the strapping young farm boy from the plains of Kansas, the coal miner’s son from West Virginia, the son of immigrants from New York City, the American Indian from a reservation in America’s Southwest, the Mississippi son of black tenant farmers, or the child of wealth from the great Northeast. Illiterate or well educated, they all found themselves in another world, nothing like they had ever seen at home.
United only by a common cause, these men of different regions and different cultures fought side-by-side for the preservation of freedom. Sometimes they died together, brothers-in-arms. The blood that flowed through their veins or stained the sand and soil beneath their corpses all looked the same. And it is mingled blood of patriots that germinates the seeds of freedom.
President Reagan was right when he stated that we don’t have to look to the history books for heroes. They are all around us.
I applaud the sacrifices of our veterans; I marvel at their courage; I glory in their success. Moreover, I pray that there will always be a majority of Americans who know and exhibit these same rare and special qualities.
To the untrained eye, they might appear to be unassuming and ordinary. But they are heroes--every one! And we are free because of them. ***
COPYRIGHT © 2001 BY THE AMERICAN PARTISAN. All writers retain rights to their work.
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