by Danny Calhoun
Commonwealth Journal
May 16, 2007 09:07 am
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Today is John’s 79th birthday. There will be no party, nor gathering of friends and family to celebrate. In fact John hasn’t seen any of his family or friends in over 30 years. His parents are deceased and his only sister passed away 25 years ago. His childhood friends are also either dead, have moved away, or have long ago forgotten him. John leads a very lonely life.
John grew up on a small farm in western Pulaski County. His father was very good at farming and had slowly passed along his knowledge to him.
As John lay there, in his nursing home bed, his thoughts fondly returned to those happy days of his childhood growing up on a farm. Like many from his generation he had only gone to the second grade in school. His father’s farm was just big enough to require he work on it full-time. He smiled as he remembered the joy and satisfaction of preparing a piece of land and bringing in a successful crop.
He remembered how during those long days of backbreaking work he would dream of someday having his own farm and a family to share it with. It would be a good, full, and prosperous life , as he passed along to his sons the secrets his father had shared with him. A tear fell from John’s eye as he thought how long ago he had lived those dreams.
John turned 17 years old on November 1, 1941. On December 7th 1941 John’s world was torn apart when the attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War 2.
John and his family were devoutly religious. Even though he had some misgiving about the war, he had been taught to love his fellow man and that thou shall not kill, he knew that his destiny was to enter the service and defend his country and it’s freedoms, which had provided so much for him.
John spent the next four years of his young life fighting on what seemed like every island in the Pacific Ocean. His outfit always seemed to be the one sent in first. John, not quite 21 years old, had endured the horrors of war that most people could never imagine, even in their worst nightmares. As he continued to fight, his resolve to win, and his love for his country and comrades became stronger. He had seen first hand what happened when other countries lost their freedom.
On his last battlefield John was wounded by rifle fire 4 times as he attempted to remove his wounded comrades from the line of fire. He was awarded The Silver Star and a Purple Heart for his heroism that day.
He returned to the country he loved as a hero.
John’s life as he knew it, and his dreams, ended that day. He had sustained such severe wounds that he would be confined to a lifetime of hospital beds and pain.
That was 56 years ago and he has lain in a hospital bed, mostly alone, with his thoughts and pain since that day.
He is well taken care of by the staff. However, he has never known the basic joys that give a man’s life meaning, the love of a woman sharing your life, the love and pride in your children and grandchildren,
the closeness of true friends, the ability to work toward a goal and someday to reap the rewards of having reached that goal.
John’s thoughts went back to the first years of his confinement. He remembered how veterans groups and others would come to visit him. They were such happy times for him. He would spend hours just talking with them. They don’t come anymore though. I guess they are just to involved in their own lives, in this busy world, to find time for him.
John felt tears stinging his eyes as he reached to his nightstand and picked up his Silver Star and Purple Heart. He thought of the dreams of his youth, of the horrors of war, of his comrades and of his country, which he still loved so much.
John turned his head and looked out the window, into the courtyard, at the flag of his country waving so majestically in the afternoon breeze. The tears continued to flow from his eyes as he smiled and whispered the final thoughts of his life, “ God bless America, God bless our flag and God less our veterans. If I had the choice I would do it all over again.”
John then passed into a place of peace, tranquility, serenity and no pain, a place he had longed for so long.
There are tens of thousands of men like John in our VA Hospitals and nursing homes today. Men who have given and sacrificed so much out of love for their country and fellow men. Men of honor who ask for nothing more than a visit from someone and knowing that someone still cares and remembers. Men who not only served in World War II, but all our country’s wars.
May 30th will be celebrated as Memorial Day. A special day set aside to commemorate and honor the memory of men like John, who sacrificed so much to ensure our right to live in freedom. That freedom did not come about without a cost. The cost was paid by many thousands of men like John. Ordinary, but special men, who willingly placed honor, pride and a devout love of their country and it’s freedoms, above self, and proudly served their country to provide those freedoms to their fellow men.
Many of those men, like John, didn’t die, but still sacrificed their lives and dreams for their beliefs. Many of these men, like John, are confined to hospitals and nursing homes, still paying for those freedoms.
With freedom comes responsibility. With responsibility comes obligation. We all carry the responsibility to take what these men have given us and never stop building upon it , constantly striving to ensure that our country is not only the greatest on earth but provides the most freedoms of any country. We also have the absolute obligation to honor and remember those men who have provided us with the foundation to accomplish this.
On this Memorial Day please take the time to remember and honor those veterans who have given so much of their lives to defend the rights, privileges and freedoms we as a free society love and enjoy so much. Take the time to honor those that served and returned, those who never returned and those still paying the price for freedom.
Please also take the time to remember those who now standing at freedom’s gate, in harm’s way, carrying on the legacy of John and others who went before them.
God bless you, God bless America and God bless our veterans.
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