Country Connections By James and Ellen Perry
It’s an early morning in June 2023 and Norris Lake is quiet. No jet skis and fast boats with raucous passengers. No houseboats and pontoon boats bouncing over waves created by jet skis or fast boats this early June morning. All the barbeque grill fires are out with most
grills put up ’til the 4th of July.
Memorial Day for 2023 has come and gone, but around the world headstones stand facing the rising sun in salute to over a million soldiers, marines, airmen, sailors, Merchant Marines and Coast Guard men whose lives of mostly young men were given so that free people could have periods of peace to live their lives.
We should not forget the 9,500 Merchant Marines who lost their lives as crewmen, officers and captains on Liberty ships and Victory ships. Many of the Liberty ships were built at Panama City, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama, as well at other shipyards in America. The Victory ships were built at Baltimore, Maryland, and shipyards on the Pacific Coast of America.
Most people today, especially the young set, have no idea of how important were the Merchant Marine-manned Liberty and Victory ships to the Allies in winning World War II.
These ships carried all needed supplies from food to ammo to the different theaters of war during WWII.
Many ships were sunk by German and Japanese submarines with the loss of 9,500 lives. These Merchant Marines should be recognized on Memorial Day.
Listed here are U.S. military killed in action in America’s major wars:
Revolutionary War - 25,000
War of 1812 - 20,000
Mexican American War - 13,283
Civil War - 620,000
WWI - 116,516
WWII - 405,399 (Merchant Marines-9,521)
Korean - 36,516
Vietnam – 58,209
War on Terror - 7,075
Total - 1,311,519
Many more U.S. military. advisors, special forces and CIA have given their lives since WWII in Africa, the Middle East, Central America, Asia and South America to prevent major wars from starting or warlords from taking control of Third World countries that the U.S. had major interest in.
A good example is Sgt. Barry Sadler, who served in the Vietnam War in 1965 as a green beret medic. He first enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at the age of 17 in 1958.
After his Air Force four-year enlistment ended, Sadler enlisted in the army and volunteered for the airborne and special forces. He was seriously injured in the Vietnam Central Highlands by a punji stick. He developed an infection in his leg and was evacuated to the Philippines where he was treated and then returned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and made a complete recovery.
He co-wrote a song called “Ballad of the Green Berets” in 1965. In 1966 the songwent to #1 on the Billboard Charts and remained at #1 for five weeks. The song sold over nine million copies. An album released soon after sold over two million copies. He also wrote 28 pulp fiction novels which sold well.
Sadler moved to Guatemala in the early 1980s and supposedly was training Contras who were fighting the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, who were backed by Daniel Ortega who had ties to the Russians. On September 7, 1989, he was shot in the head in Guatemala City under suspicious circumstances. Some say by a communist Sandinista plot. Sadler was flown back to the VA Hospital at Nashville, Tennessee. He died at the Murfreesboro, Tennessee VA Hospital November 9, 1989.
This section is to enlighten the reader about what happened to Sgt. Barry Sadler and many, many other military personnel doing surreptitious service for America since WWII. If you have never heard Sgt. Barry Sadler’s song “Ballad of the Green Beret” you can type into your computer and give it a listen.
A great salutation to all veterans was “Honoring All Who Served’ which took place at the Union County High School auditorium from 2002 until 2018 when Covid hit the world. It was a very successful Veteran’s Day program started and handled by Barbara Williams. The program needs to be restarted as Covid is no longer a threat. Barbara said she would help as an advisor for the program. We will have a complete article on “Honoring All Who Served” in an early autumn Historic Union County Article before this year’s Veteran’s Day in November.
Time to go listen to Sgt. Barry Sadler’s “Ballad of the Green Beret” and Red Foley’s “Smoke on the Water” from WWII.
See you all next month.