Published: November 06, 2009 03:52 pm      

Veterans make the world safe for democracy — and all of us

Wednesday is Veterans Day and let us all remember there is no apostrophe because it is a day to honor all who have served and not just one. “Celebrate” is truly not the right verb to describe the occasion but rather “commemorate” is more appropriate, as in the act of honoring people and events.

Like many of you, I miss several of those individuals. It is a very tough task to write about the soldiers without my old friend, Tom Colley, here to discuss it. He was an Air Force man, you know, but his immense knowledge of the American military was always a source of amazement and delight to me. He left Garden Creek for the icy plateaus of Turkey during the height of the Cold War. How many evenings we spent reviewing military history in his editorial office here at the Daily Telegraph I can not recall, but I will never forget the things we said here.

I have spent many Saturday mornings at Southwest Virginia Community College because my friends, Nathan and Becky Guess, invited me to cover the proceedings. Becky is the veterans’ coordinator at SwVCC and a terrific organizer. Nathan is gone now but as her late husband and my unofficial “uncle” he was another of my best friends in the whole world.

Nathan was not only a long-time officer in the Veterans of Foreign Wars but a Navy veteran of World War II who never lost the fighting spirit of someone who had sailed the seven seas when America’s freedom was threatened by the likes of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo. Like my father, Nathan joined the Navy before he was legally old enough to do so because he felt like the United States was worth defending at all costs.

Here in Bluefield, one of my particular heroes is Max Kammer. He is a kind and gentle man, a business pillar of the community, devoted to his family and Four Seasons Country. Mr. Kammer is also a veteran of Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, one of the legendary bands that raced across Europe and into Germany to help liberate the continent from the Nazis. He is also as proud (and modest) a patriot as you will ever meet.

My great-uncle Jim was another Army veteran. He left Abbs Valley in 1917 and sailed off to France as a doughboy ready to help save the world for democracy. Jim was a sharpshooter, too. He told me about a couple of soldiers he had the honor of serving with over there. One was Douglas MacArthur, who eventually won more medals than any American solider between 1900-1950. MacArthur became a five-star general in the next war and presided over the Japanese surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945.

Jim was more proud, I believe, to have served with a fellow rifleman, Sgt. Alvin C. York, of Pall Mall, Tenn. It was York who captured 132 Germans and killed more than 20 in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Jim told me how Sgt. York really did wet down the sight of his rifle and that he (York) was an even better shot than my uncle himself. More importantly than anything else, they were two of the boys who had left the mountains of home to fight in other, distant hills for the freedom we still enjoy today.

Not long ago I came across a picture of the U.S.S. Humboldt, a seaplane tender Daddy served on between 1944-46 in ports from the one near Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to the Sea of Japan and all points in between.

He told me about those days when U-boats were lurking beneath the waves, Zeroes were flying above them, and Americans were slogging one beach at a time through the South Pacific in places like Iwo Jima and Saipan.

Too many of my friends and family are gone now for me to have a true celebration but like you, I commemorate their sacrifice with a heart-felt “thank you” to the brave men and women, boys and girls, who have served and continue to serve on our behalf. Out on the broad oceans and on the sandy deserts, they answer the call of duty. They are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for family, friends, and those back home. This devotion to duty of the American veteran is a wonderful thing.

Since 1776, they have never lost it.

And that, on this Veterans Day in 2009, is precisely why we honor the people who for more than 230 years have been the finest homeland security task force in the history of the world.

Larry Hypes is a teacher at Tazewell High School and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph.