大象传媒

It is Remembrance Sunday and so I remember a father like no other, irreplacable and superb. He was a simple farm boy from Eastern Tennessee in the Applachian Mountains when he went into the United States Army to fight all across Europe. He was joined by four brothers, one highly decorated with two Purple Hearts, all of whom survived by some miracle. Two other brothers were involved in munitions work at home. He spoke little about the war and it is to my great regret that what little I know I only found out long after his death in 1976 at 56. He served in the 94th Signal Corps initially in England, but also in France, Germany, Belgium, Czechoslavakia, and other parts of Europe. He was a quiet, gentle man who never indicated an unwillingness to serve. Like all soldiers there were moments of frustration with 'the system' and what appeared to be illogical instructions, but he was discharged honourably at the end of the war having served well and having done his duty. Because he was such a discreet person who could be trusted to never speak of anything he had been told, he was seriously considered for intelligence work. Unfortunately, a jealous neighbour back home gave a deliberately false character reference which eliminated this opportunity. The stories he told my brother and I during our childhoods consisted only of the funny things that happened. He went down with measles twice, the result for many men coming from isolated farms who had little contact with large numbers of people outside their communities. Once he had to drive a truck through Paris in a convoy. The problem was the truck had no brakes, so his truck was placed between two trucks with brakes and thus they bumped their way through Paris. His company billeted beside a stream one evening and woke up the next morning floating in due to flooding. There is so much more I wish I had asked him and there is only one of his brothers left who can give me information. What I know of him is that he was a man of honour who never shirked responsibility even at his own cost. He was a father of great kindness and fairness, an example worth trying to emulate. He served his country, those in Europe and the cause of freedom with courage and dedication. I now live in England, as I have done for 13 years. Often I wonder if I am not crossing paths with him, if I'm not in places where he would have been. He gave his heart freely and stood by it, but was no one's fool. He gave all, save his life, for his country and for total strangers in countries equally foreign to himself.

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