Honoring great deeds and old vets
Time marches on, and it’s already time again for my annual Veteran’s Day column.
Like in my past columns, I’ll mention personal heroes I have had the pleasure of knowing, but this time I’d like to start with an Army officer’s touching commemoration of the death of his son in Iraq.
Here’s how Lt. Col. Mark Murphy, Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, put it, following a public ceremony:
“He said, ‘Come on, let's sit down and talk.’ He pulled up a chair...and we sat down next to him...For the next 15 or 20 minutes, he talked with us about our son, Iraq, his family, faith, convictions, and shared his feelings about nearing the end of his presidency...He said that he'd taken a lot of heat...but was proud to say that he never sold his soul.
“One of the somber moments was when he thanked us for the opportunity to meet, because he feels a heavy responsibility knowing that our son died because of a decision he made. He was incredibly humble, full of warmth...”
Quite a tribute to George Bush, the Texan who kept America free of terrorist attacks after 9/ll and brought peace to Iraq.
Now to my other heroes:
JOE SPAGNOLI--“Congratulations, you have been selected...” the telegram said. So began a teenager’s World War II odyssey. After stateside combat training, Joe wound up with about 15 army comrades, on his 19th birthday, in a river paddle boat on the Ganges River to get to Dinjan, the 10th Air Force base in the Indian state of Assam.
From there, he was assigned to air-alert jungle outposts to provide early warning of Japanese air strikes and military movements. His units lived among Gurka fighters out of Nepal, involving stays with Naga tribes in their villages. The Nagas were well known as headhunters.
“The chief of five large villages I met with several times had rhinoceros tusks dangling from his ear lobes, and adorned with ivory around his upper arms and across his forehead,” Joe recalls. The chief had 17 wives plus 30 coolies and their wives and children at his disposal.
Then there was the chief’s bodyguard. “A Gurka guided me behind the Naga. Carved rather raggedly on the stick was the symbol of twelve heads he had taken so far.” In one ceremony, Joe had to ritually sacrifice a goat.
His novel tour lasted two years. Long afterward, Joe would head several Midwestern public school systems. He and wife of 59 years, Charlotte, have since enjoyed a long retirement in Aquia Harbour
FRANK LEWIS: Last year I wrote an article about Frank, the 85-year-old cartoonist for this newspaper, a fellow Stafford resident, and a World War II enlistee in the army. Frank had engaged in hand-to-hand combat in the Philippines to help free Manila of Japanese control. Then, again in Vietnam, in U.S. special forces, he helped train and lead Montagnard tribesmen for two years against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese along the Cambodian border. A diminutive old guy, and shy--you’d never guess the extent of his valor.
FRANK WITHROW: Speaking of diminutive, this Frank, originally from Texas, probably has more smarts per pound than just about anyone alive. As a teen enlistee who survived Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego, Frank would become a military weather forecaster. Then in the south Pacific, Frank was among those who stormed ashore at Majuro, near Tarawa and the staging area for the attack on Guam and Saipan. He served as a senior weather forecaster. “We also flew as tail gunners.”
Now a retired Ph.D education expert enjoying the good life in Stafford, Frank was once a high official in the Johnson Administration’s education department. In addition to contributing greatly to the literature, especially in educating the hearing-impaired, he is also an accomplished artist, showing his paintings in local venues--and of course a member of Stafford’s ROMEO ( Retired Old Men Eating Out.)
HENRY MARSH AND BERNIE WISE: I would be remiss in discussing height-impaired men who served in the military if I left these two out. Henry (RIP) went ashore in the second wave hitting Omaha Beach in the greatest military invasion in history. It was his first taste of combat. He survived and lived to serve and sing many years, with me for a while in a barbershop quartet, in Fredericksburg. Our singing pal and Henry’s best friend, Bernie Wise, was a combat medic when the troops hit Iwo Jima. “I was on shore when the flag went up,” Bernie says.
It’s been a great pleasure knowing these area gentlemen. Thanks again for their great service to our country.
Like in my past columns, I’ll mention personal heroes I have had the pleasure of knowing, but this time I’d like to start with an Army officer’s touching commemoration of the death of his son in Iraq.
Here’s how Lt. Col. Mark Murphy, Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, put it, following a public ceremony:
“He said, ‘Come on, let's sit down and talk.’ He pulled up a chair...and we sat down next to him...For the next 15 or 20 minutes, he talked with us about our son, Iraq, his family, faith, convictions, and shared his feelings about nearing the end of his presidency...He said that he'd taken a lot of heat...but was proud to say that he never sold his soul.
“One of the somber moments was when he thanked us for the opportunity to meet, because he feels a heavy responsibility knowing that our son died because of a decision he made. He was incredibly humble, full of warmth...”
Quite a tribute to George Bush, the Texan who kept America free of terrorist attacks after 9/ll and brought peace to Iraq.
Now to my other heroes:
JOE SPAGNOLI--“Congratulations, you have been selected...” the telegram said. So began a teenager’s World War II odyssey. After stateside combat training, Joe wound up with about 15 army comrades, on his 19th birthday, in a river paddle boat on the Ganges River to get to Dinjan, the 10th Air Force base in the Indian state of Assam.
From there, he was assigned to air-alert jungle outposts to provide early warning of Japanese air strikes and military movements. His units lived among Gurka fighters out of Nepal, involving stays with Naga tribes in their villages. The Nagas were well known as headhunters.
“The chief of five large villages I met with several times had rhinoceros tusks dangling from his ear lobes, and adorned with ivory around his upper arms and across his forehead,” Joe recalls. The chief had 17 wives plus 30 coolies and their wives and children at his disposal.
Then there was the chief’s bodyguard. “A Gurka guided me behind the Naga. Carved rather raggedly on the stick was the symbol of twelve heads he had taken so far.” In one ceremony, Joe had to ritually sacrifice a goat.
His novel tour lasted two years. Long afterward, Joe would head several Midwestern public school systems. He and wife of 59 years, Charlotte, have since enjoyed a long retirement in Aquia Harbour
FRANK LEWIS: Last year I wrote an article about Frank, the 85-year-old cartoonist for this newspaper, a fellow Stafford resident, and a World War II enlistee in the army. Frank had engaged in hand-to-hand combat in the Philippines to help free Manila of Japanese control. Then, again in Vietnam, in U.S. special forces, he helped train and lead Montagnard tribesmen for two years against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese along the Cambodian border. A diminutive old guy, and shy--you’d never guess the extent of his valor.
FRANK WITHROW: Speaking of diminutive, this Frank, originally from Texas, probably has more smarts per pound than just about anyone alive. As a teen enlistee who survived Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego, Frank would become a military weather forecaster. Then in the south Pacific, Frank was among those who stormed ashore at Majuro, near Tarawa and the staging area for the attack on Guam and Saipan. He served as a senior weather forecaster. “We also flew as tail gunners.”
Now a retired Ph.D education expert enjoying the good life in Stafford, Frank was once a high official in the Johnson Administration’s education department. In addition to contributing greatly to the literature, especially in educating the hearing-impaired, he is also an accomplished artist, showing his paintings in local venues--and of course a member of Stafford’s ROMEO ( Retired Old Men Eating Out.)
HENRY MARSH AND BERNIE WISE: I would be remiss in discussing height-impaired men who served in the military if I left these two out. Henry (RIP) went ashore in the second wave hitting Omaha Beach in the greatest military invasion in history. It was his first taste of combat. He survived and lived to serve and sing many years, with me for a while in a barbershop quartet, in Fredericksburg. Our singing pal and Henry’s best friend, Bernie Wise, was a combat medic when the troops hit Iwo Jima. “I was on shore when the flag went up,” Bernie says.
It’s been a great pleasure knowing these area gentlemen. Thanks again for their great service to our country.
posted by Ben Blankenship at
6:48 PM
