The Richmond Register

Viewpoints

November 11, 2009

Remembering our veterans

The annual Veterans Day ceremonies always take me to another place and time, back to Elliott County of the mid-1940s when the men came home from the war.

World War II, of course.

My father and four uncles all served in the military, though Uncle Paul was already there, monitoring radios on a remote Pacific island the Sunday that Pearl Harbor was bombed.

That was the day after my brother Roger, named for Paul (Rodgers), was born. They didn’t tell my mother we were at war until two of her brothers were getting ready to leave for the Army. One went to Africa, fought through Italy and into France before getting hit in a French farmyard and eventually sent home near the war’s end. Her other brother was sent to the South Pacific.

Daddy left just after I was born, late in 1943, and for the next two years my father was the sailor in the picture on the mantle. When he did come home, after D Day and the Allied victory, walking all the way from Olive Hill after his midnight train arrived, I tried to run him off.

He wouldn’t go. We gradually adjusted.

Uncle Kenneth came home after spending about a year in a German prison camp, bombed so often that for a couple of years Kenneth took cover whenever a plane flew over.

I remember Uncle Allen Cox, back from fighting in the Pacific islands, happy to be home with a gold tooth and a yellow Cadillac convertible. Uncle Stanley was healing from a gunshot through the jaw.

They all used to gather at our house in Bluebank after we moved to Fleming County. Paul, the Naval officer, was nearly a twin to my father and had the same white, flashing teeth and wavy hair, and my last memory of him was when he told me and Roger that he’d send us both through college.

Didn’t know what a college was, at the time, but it sounded great.

But Paul, after surviving the war and all the hell it created, was reported missing in November of 1948, a 40 year mystery that finally turned out to be some sort of a spy expedition to Korea that left no trace of planes, debris, or bodies. Grandma always said the Russians had Paul, and she may have been right.

Every Sunday we were all in Elliott County at Grandma’s house, where my stepgrandfather Sam Leedy and his dog Red had been my wartime buddies, where I was to spend many summers, and where always, when the men gathered, the talk was of the war. Where they had been, what they had seen, and sometimes, if they thought no kids were listening, some of what they’d been through.

Kenneth’s tales of prison camp were both horrible and hilarious, an 18-year-old mountain kid surviving the Nazi punishment, staying alive by eating potato peelings, coming out as a frail skeleton.

I once rode with Kenneth in an Army surplus Jeep on his mail route, down Sinking Creek Road back when it was mostly creek and rocks, a daylight-to-dark journey that today could be finished in less than an hour, picking up the mail in Carter County and bringing it back up the cliffs for distribution. In time, he and Uncle Allen moved away, to industrial Ohio, the route so many young veterans took.

Mostly, I remember how happy everybody was to just be alive, still young in years, back home after helping win the most awful war, with kids and food everywhere and a future once again full of promise.

Most of the greatest generation are gone now, plus some of us, and in many ways life has been as good as the young soldiers and sailors thought it would be. The wars never stopped, though, and young people never stopped leaving home and going into danger.

Probably, they never will.

Text Only
Viewpoints
  • Jared-Carpenter.jpg Education a focus in Senate this week

    FRANKFORT — The Senate passed several bills this week. Of these bills, three education bills are of particular importance.

    February 5, 2012 1 Photo

  • Jim Waters Redistricting ruling offers collateral benefits for voters and taxpayers

    Slowing down Frankfort’s redistricting march offers collateral benefits for voters and taxpayers.

    February 4, 2012 1 Photo

  • Froma-Harrop.jpg In defense of southern-fried Paula Deen

    Celebrity chef Paula Deen lustily massages salt into "a mighty fat hog,” as the dogs circle the cooking island. For the yams, “I’m only using half a stick of butter,” she drawls before breaking into high laughter. Deen’s popular Food Network show does southern cooking with no brakes on the pork fat, butter, sugar or other dietarily incorrect ingredients.

    February 1, 2012 1 Photo

  • roger-simon-color.jpg GOP makes Obama look good

    The Republican field debated for the 19th time Thursday night, and once again, the media promised us it was going to be a “make or break” event.
    Don’t believe the media.

    January 30, 2012 1 Photo

  • stossel.jpg The real State of the Union

    Has Barack Obama learned nothing in three years?
    During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, he promised “a blueprint for an economy.”
    But economies are crushed by blueprints.

    January 26, 2012 1 Photo

  • Glenmore-Jones.jpg Looks ain’t everything

    I guess we can blame it on television or the movies, that looks are so important in America, especially to young folks. These two mediums place such a premium on beautiful, shapely women and handsome men that most young people believe if you do not possess these attributes you are nothing.

    January 25, 2012 1 Photo

  • Ronnie-Ellis.jpg It’s politics as usual

    FRANKFORT – I’m betting that if you’ve followed the redistricting contortions birthed by the Democratic controlled House and Republican controlled Senate, you’re hardly shocked.

    January 22, 2012 1 Photo

  • Jim Waters Cherry picking and charter schools

    National School Choice Week is Jan. 22-28.
    There’s little to celebrate in Kentucky – one of only nine states without a charter-school law.

    January 21, 2012 1 Photo

  • Rita Smart House knee-deep in important issues

    Last week was filled with impassioned and sometimes heated discussions about redistricting as we struggled to meet the constitutional mandate to redraw boundary lines based upon U.S. census data.

    January 18, 2012 1 Photo

  • Jared-Carpenter.jpg Senate considers budgetary, drug issues

    The second week of session saw several significant issues begin to be debated in committees. Drug abuse, weaknesses in child-protective services, and the state’s debt level were all topics of discussion. The committee process is intended to inform the legislators of the pros and cons of each bill. Lively debate accompanied each piece of legislation.

    January 17, 2012 1 Photo

Community Calendar
Loading…
Events by eviesays.com
AP Video
White House Attacks Romney on Birth Control Homs Bombardment Continues, Global Outcry Grows Mo. Teen Gets Life Sentence for Killing Girl, 9 Lower-hassle Screening to Be Tested at Airports Raw Video: Dog Rescued From Icy Colo. Water Helmet Camera Captures Calif. Fire Rescue Worker Tells 911: Powell 'exploded the House' Triple Win: Santorum Takes Minn., Mo., Colo. Injured Marine Inspired by Homecoming No Rape Charges Against Son of NYPD Commissioner Egypt's Ruling Generals Play Risky Game With US Former Komen Exec Defends Funding Cut Skip the Coffee Cup and Inhale Your Caffeine Fix Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional Jury Selection for Ex-UVa Athlete Enters 2nd Day Cab Driver Helps Wis. Family Escape House Fire Staff Removed at LA School During Abuse Probe Runaway Goat Leads Police on Wild Chase
Hyperlocal Search
Premier Guide
Find a business

Walking Fingers
Maps, Menus, Store hours, Coupons, and more...
Premier Guide
Popular Searches
Powered by Local.com
Poll

Have you ever attended a meeting of a local government agency or taxing district?

Yes
No
     View Results