My Reasons to Remember

I don’t have any pictures of my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, John (War Jack) Howard, but he, along with 2 of his brothers fought with George Washington for this nation’s independence. “War Jack” was, apparently, his Native American name as he was half Cherokee. I don’t know that John did anything heroic but fighting for liberty runs deep in my lineage and is a constant reminder that“Freedom is not free!”

Starting with WWI, my Grandfather on my mother’s side, Garold Acorn, fought the Germans while a member of U.S. Army Cavalry. He never wanted to talk about it; he called it “the horrors of war”. He is but one reason I remember.

In WWII, these are but three of my reasons to remember Memorial Day but my Memorial Day lasts 365 days a year. These are two of my Uncle Cecil Howard and Uncle Berry Howard, taken before they were taken prisoner at Corregidor, Philippines, in 1942; they spent all but the last 6 weeks of WWII as P.O.W.’s in a Japanese POW camp in Manchuria, China. The third picture is my Uncle Gerald Acorn and was in the European “Theatre”, with General Eisenhower when they liberated the Jews from the concentration camps – Gerald never forgot those camps and ovens! All 3 lived to tell their stories but Cecil and Berry were very reluctant because of the brutality of the Japanese guards (between Bataan and Corregidor, 70,000 Americans were taken prisoner; when they were liberated in 1945, there were but 17,000 alive!) My father, Radphord, wasn’t accepted because he had 2 hernias so he supported the war effort by helping build the reactors at Hanford, from which the plutonium for “Little Boy” or “Fat Man” used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. A side-note: Uncle Berry had to have his mother give permission for him to join because he was 17.

We called him Uncle “Tex” but he was really my 2nd Cousin’s husband. Tex was a Machinists Mate aboard the U.S.S. Lexington (CV-2), which had to be scuttled in the “Battle of the Coral Sea” in 1943, because of “Kamikaze” attacks that left her with uncontrollable fires and explosions and he was then stationed aboard the U.S.S. Lexington (CV-16), the re-named new carrier. Re-named to demoralize the Japanese.

Another reason I remember is my Uncle Joe; he joined when he was 18 and was stationed in Japan as one of the occupying forces. Joe didn’t see “action” but felt it his duty to serve, as his brothers had. I have fond memories of all my uncles and grandfather; learning many of the values that have shaped me.

I have reasons to remember the war that decimated the moral of our military for many years! The only war that some of the American people blamed the military for … Viet Nam! This is my cousin, Ernest McColley and me. He was drafted as a conscientious objector, trained as a Army Medic for the 1st Cavalry, winner of the Bronze Star with Cluster and “V” for valor and 2 Purple Hearts for wounds sustained returning to the battlefield 3 more times to pull wounded comrades out to be medevac’d out. He suffers today from PTSD that went undiagnosed for 35 years, so when they say the VA doesn’t take care of our military coming back from war, you can believe it! I served in the U.S. Navy just prior to the Viet Nam heating up; at the time of the Cuban Blockade.

Standing up to the government against an undeclared war because of conscience is another reason I proudly remember Memorial Day; that is what it means to be a Patriot, as much as fighting! My cousin, Jerry Pettyjohn, did exactly that; he didn’t believe we should have been in Viet Nam and refused the draft. He could have done as many Americans did and run away to Canada or Great Britain but he didn’t; he could have gone “underground” but he didn’t; he went to a federal prison for 2 years, fighting for freedom of religion. I have as much respect for Jerry as I do my cousin, Ernie, who fought in Viet Nam! Fighting for freedom is more than picking up a gun; it is standing for morality and choice as well.

Serving in this nation’s defense is a long tradition for my family, as it has been for most American families and Memorial Day becomes, not only a day of reflection, but a day of celebration and thanksgiving. I celebrate because my family was fortunate because they all survived the wars and conflicts and we should all be thankful to live in a country, created by divine providence, with liberties, envied by the world, granted to us by God!

Here are others of my family who have fulfilled service to this nation.

The current administration illustrates that fact that “Freedom is not free!” almost daily as they do everything they can to rob us of our God-given rights and this time, as it was for my Great-Great-Great Grandfather John Howard and his brothers, the people, not the military, will have to wrest our liberty back from a tyrannical government. We have allowed, for too long, our government, led by both parties, to rob us of liberty in order to “protect us”! …. This is another case of the medicine being more hazardous to our health than the danger posed without it!

When you study our history, as I have, you come to the shocking realization that this government has sent our young men and women into undeclared wars since Korea! Since WWII, we have not fought a constitutionally declared war; they are “police actions” fought under the guise of United Nation’s “Resolutions” and Congress has authorized spending the money for them! None of them were our fight to fight except Afghanistan and that wasn’t done constitutionally or correctly! Congress, again, authorized spending money; the U.N. passed a “resolution”, authorizing invading a sovereign nation to kill or capture one man – Osama bin Laden!

This was done completely wrong! Congress is given two (2) choices for any aggression against our nation in the Constitution: Formal Declaration of War or Letters of Marque or Reprisal … They did neither! It took us 10 years, the lives of 2,156 Americans, 1,059 of our allies, countless Afghan Taliban and civilians, and 18,109 Americans wounded (many come home without arms and legs) to kill one man in Pakistan! Osama bin Laden had the effect he wanted in America – Terror! So terrified the American people sacrificed their God-given liberties for a perceived “security” and both parties sold this bill-of-goods to the people!

Letters of Reprisal would have been less costly in time, money, and lives; a Letter of Reprisal would have Seal Team 6 killing bin Laden in less than 10 years and no lose of American or ally lives! Each member of Al Qaeda could have been taken out the same way and it probably wouldn’t have taken 10 years!

This in no way diminishes my respect for our military; they aren’t the ones “pick’n the fights”! An out-of-control government, willfully disregarding the Constitution pick the fights and send our military into ‘harm’s way’ for their own sense of power! 435 idiots, we keep electing, who think they know better than the people do and an Executive Branch signs off on it! A pox on them!

I have many reasons to remember Memorial Day and to honor the memories of those who have served to keep us free and we should think of every day as Memorial Day and fight to keep our liberties to pass on to our children, grandchildren, and future generations of Americans because, if we don’t fight for liberty, we doom our grandchildren to a life of slavery to the “State”! I, for one, will not allow that while I live; I pray you are with me!