Ed Phillips' Arizona Almanac
"The Way of Life Called Arizona"
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It is time.....
It is time to take a breath and be thankful for where we are and how far we have come. Some of us have had a very tough time in the last year or two and, frankly, I am on that list, too.
I spoke with my Dad recently and he told me that the times right now are as difficult as when he and his 9 brothers and sisters grew up in the depression. He also hastened to add that we got through that and we also got through a horrifying World Conflict.
Proudly, my Dad and 2 of his brothers served in World War II. They all came home alive.
My Dad was a young Army private and fate put him on a troop ship called the S.S. Leopoldville. It was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in the English Channel on Christmas Eve 1944. They were headed to fight in the Battle of the Bulge.
They were also in sight of Cherbourg France. Over 700 men died that cold night waiting for a rescue that was too late in coming because almost everyone in Cherbourg had the night off to celebrate Christmas.
Dad couldn't swim. A fellow solder saw him going under and shoved a piece of something that floated under him and told him to hang on. He did and he lived.
These young men couldn't tell anyone about their ordeal for 50 years. Their superior officers told these boys they would be court martialed if they did.
They didn't talk. The story of the S.S. Leopoldville was finally told in the mid 1990s in England.
My friend Ray Cox also served his country with honor. He sent me the story below recently. It says what many of us think. It makes me proud of people like my Dad and Ray. I am here and what I am because of the service and sacrifice they made.
I don't know how to ever thank them. Listening to their words and stories seems to be the least we can do to honor them.
Read the introduction below then click on the link for Ray's story.
Four Old Men
On Memorial Day of ’09, as part of its coverage of Memorial Day across America, Fox News aired a brief clip of a parade in some little Midwestern town. The camera panned the crowd and I noticed four old gray haired veterans in their uniforms and Legionnaire caps sitting in folding chairs at the side of the street silently watching the parade.
In the background was a rather scruffy looking young man, maybe 25, with a beard and pony tail, wearing cutoffs, a black concert shirt with a back pack slung over one shoulder. I don’t know why I noticed him; he was almost out of frame, slightly out of focus and was on screen maybe ten seconds or less. I guess it might have been because he wasn’t watching the parade but instead, he was staring intensely at the old veterans.
Obviously, the four old men were veterans of WWII and the vagabond? Probably never wore a military uniform in his life and sneered at any one who did. I started thinking, “What’s going on in this guy’s mind. Why is he staring so hard at the four old veterans?”
So I tried to put myself inside his head and this is what I thought might be going thru his mind. This is the result of three nights of speculating about what he might have been thinking. By pure coincidence, the anniversary of D-Day fell within the three nights in which I endeavored to capture his thoughts.
Ray Cox, RM/CT1
USN 1952-1956
Click for Ray's Story
Four Old Men with Silver Hair
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