THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING. I had the good fortune to know retired General John Lawlor. Years ago, after a local Memorial Day celebration, celebrated on the village green, I asked him what book I should read to find out more about World War II, in which he had fought. He recommended a novel, WAR AND REMEMBRANCE, by Herman Wouk. In the book, Wouk has a fictional enemy German historian describing the Battle of Midway say, “The United States of America has been a lucky nation, and this luck held remarkably on June 4, 1942. How long it will hold in the future, only the dark gods know who bestowed on this crass mercantile nation of mongrelized blood and cowboy culture a virgin continent with almost infinite natural resources.” Wouk describes the five minutes in the Battle of Midway in which three Japanese aircraft carriers were destroyed and the war in the Pacific was won. At that point in the narrative, Wouk does an unusual and wonderful thing. He lists the names of the young men of the three torpedo plane squadrons who brought about the turning point in the war in the Pacific. I am going to list them again here:

John C. Waldron, James C. Owens, Jr., Raymond A. Moore, Jefferson D. Woodson, George M. Campbell, William W. Abercrombie, Ulvert M. Moore, William W. Creamer, John P. Gray, Harold J. Ellison, Henry R. Kenyon, Jr., William R. Evans, Jr., Grant W. Teats, Robert B. Miles, Horace F. Dobbs, Amelio Maffei, Tom H. Pettry, Otway D. Creasey, Jr., Ronald J. Fisher, Bernard P. Phelps, William F. Sawhill, Francis S. Polston, Max A. Calkins, George A. Field, Darwin L. Clark, Ross E. Bibb, Jr., Hollis Martin, Ashwell L. Picou, Robert K. Huntington, George H. Gay, Jr., Lance E. Massey, Richard W. Suesens, Wesley F. Osmus, David J. Roche, Patrick H.Hart, John W. Haas, Oswald A. Powers, Leonard L. Smith, Curtis W. Howard, Carl A. Osberg, Leo E. Perry, Harold C. Lundy, Jr., Benjamin R. Dodson, Jr., Richard M. Hansen, John R. Cole, Raymond J. Darce, Joseph E. Mandeville, William A. Phillips, Charles L. Moore, Troy C. Barkely, Robert B. Brazier, Harry L. Corl, William G. Esders, Lloyd F. Childers, Eugene E. Lindsey, Severin L. Rombach, John T. Eversole, Randolph M. Holder, Arthur V. Ely, Flourenoy G. Hodges, Paul J. Riley, John W. Brock, Lloyd Thomas, Charles T. Grenat, Wilburn F. Glenn, John U. Lane, Gregory J. Durawa, Arthur R. Lindgren, John H. Bates, Edwin J. Mushinski, John M. Blundell, Harold F. Littlefield, Albert W. Winchell, Robert E. Laub, Edward Heck, Jr., Irvin H. McPherson, Stephen B. Smith, Douglas M. Cossitt, William C. Humphrey, Jr., Doyle L. Ritchey, William D. Horton, and Wilfred N. McCoy.

Of the 82 young men, 68 were killed. Let us give thanks for all that the Americans who have gone before us have given us.