"Veterans Day 1956; WWI Vet Warns Against any "isms" but Americanism."

The following is a speech delivered by my late grandfather (1888-1973). He was mustard-gassed in the Argonne on Nov. 11, 1918, returned to the U.S. to raise a family and have a distinguished career as an educator. He was a proud member of various veterans' groups, and it is to the American Legion in his homestate of West Virginia he spoke on Veterans Day 1956. I hope you will find it interesting to see what people were thinking back then, and to consider whether things have changed all that much.
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It is a real honor to be invited to this big, little West Virginia town on this important occasion. As a community, you represent the American way of life at its best in this Mountain State of ours. The spirit of your ancestry still permeates our state and their descendants have been represented on every battlefield in the two great wars.

George Washington, the father of this country, believed in the hardy pioneer of this section of our land when he said during the dark days of the Revolutionary War, “Leave me but a banner to plant on the hills of West Augusta, and I will set this country free.” The motto on our state seal is emblematic of the spirit of West Virginians; that is, the mountaineers are always free. We love freedom and will fight to maintain it.

Our commemorating this 38th anniversary of the end of hostilities in World War I should remind us of the cost and to let the world know that we still are against any “isms” that are not Americanism.

So much has happened since that day when guns were silenced in victory for America and our allies. Tremendous strides have been made in science and research. New inventions and better methods of production have been developed to promote social and economic progress. However, much of that advancement has been used for selfish ends. Too little has been used for cultural and spiritual advancement.

Veterans Day is being celebrated today all over the United States and in many counties of the world. When the firing ceased, 38 years ago at 11 o’clock on the 11th day of November, we gloried in the hope for a world peace.

But instead the most destructive war of history was fought. The battlecry, “Remember Pearl Harbor,” rang throughout the nation and the American people rose as one mighty army to put down another tyrant of a war demon. Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Guadacanal, the Bulge and D-Day will be places in the memory of many an American mother whose son paid the supreme price, with the phantom voice of Tokyo Rose thrown in. It is now 11 years since V-J Day, the end of hostilities, and once more we are striving for peace and good will. But again there is confusion, misunderstanding, selfishness and hatred in the world. National differences among nations should be solved by peaceful means, rather than by force. Force has failed to solve differences among nations. They should be solved by peaceful means, rather than by armed conflict.

Certain ideologies have arisen which seem to make that impossible. One ideology advocates an all-powerful central government, where life is planned from the cradle to the grave. Under that system, the government promises security but takes away all freedom. The symbol of that plan of government is Russia. There, living standards are only a little higher than in China and India.

The symbol of a free government is the United States. Our living standards are the highest in the world. The totalitarian plan would destroy our form of government. They say they have no unemployment in Russia, but their unemployment is taken up by 13 million now living in concentration camps. The others are told where, when and how they are to work. They have no choice such as we have here. They must follow orders or die.

Russia has had the aid of millions of dollars worth of American machinery, airplanes and railroad equipment, yet their production per man hour is small compared to that in the United States. Over here, the American workman has the right to strike but if he were under the Soviet rule in the United States, the workman would not have a job to strike or even be given a chance to raise a protest. He would be rushed off to some concentration camp, follow orders or die. He would be told when to work, how to work and where.

Can you picture that system in the United States, or will we awaken to the dangers that now threaten our country by the fifth column already among us?

There are only six million Communists in Russia, but they are absolute dictators over the 200 million of that great country, which is so rich in natural resources. Here in America we can play the game of politics, mud sling and deride the candidates not of our choice, and then exercise that great American right to vote for whomever we please, even though he might not be the best man for the office. We will not lose our freedom by so doing.

There are those in America who would trade our form of government and our way of life for a mess of pottage - a totalitarian government which offers some security but no freedom.

The greatest threat to this country today comes from those who say one thing and mean another. Those who would trade principles for personal gain. Those who say success is a sin and tell us somebody owes us a living without our working for it, when they know this is unsound and untrue. Those who talk charity and human welfare, but wouldn’t give us a nickel from their own pockets unless they got something out of it for themselves.

The American is willing to surrender some security to enjoy the blessings of freedom. We have brought back the bodies of our men who made the supreme sacrifice on foreign fields. We assemble today to pay solemn tribute to their memory and to honor the men and women who have waged our wars.

This is a proper time to consider what America really means. If everybody in America wanted to go out for a drive, there are enough cars in this country so that we could all go at once. In Russia, it would take years to give everyone a spin around the Kremlin.

This is the greatest country the sun ever shone upon from the pine clad hills to Main to the sunny shores of the Gulf of Mexico, its beautiful rivers, valleys, picturesque mountains, the magnificent Great Lakes, rolling farm lands dotted with homes and loving people, to the Golden Gate of California, where the sun sinks into the West in the evening, kissing a benediction on this great land of ours.

A modern day W.Va. veteran talks about Iraq:

Just days before he planted his feet anew on the family homestead, Army Sgt. Chris East courted disaster on a road leading out of Baghdad. Just south of the Iraqi capital, terrorists had planted a mortar on the side the road with a set charge to detonate it at any passing troop vehicle. Fortunately for him, only the charge went off.

"I didn't realize it until we were a mile down the road," the 25-year-old Spanishburg soldier said Monday.

"I heard a big bang and (saw) the sand fly up in the air. It would have taken the whole truck out."

Now that intense fighting is a thing of the past, American soldiers must contend with hit-and-run guerrilla tactics - sponsored, East suspects, largely by an influx of terrorists from other countries.

"That's what's killing everybody now," he said. "They're taking rounds and setting them on the side of the road and blowing them up as you go by. They put them in the bushes, in the sand. They don't even try to shoot at us anymore. They don't have a chance."

On his birthday, East found the 25-year milestone blackened by the death of a buddy in similar fashion - a mortar round set in a booby trap alongside a road. ... East commands a gun truck squad for the 2nd Battalion, 325th Infantry, Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, and says the camaraderie is tight. Convinced the mission in Iraq was the right choice, East said the post-war trouble is coming from terrorists, possibly engineered by al-Quaida. "A lot of terrorists are flocking to Iraq," he said. "You've got 150,000 Americans there. Where else do terrorists want to go? I don't think it's mostly the Iraqi people. The hits are more sophisticated."

Anti-war protesters in the U.S. simply don't understand the situation, and their antics aren't sitting well with the troops, he said. "These people have no idea what they're talking about," the sergeant said.

"We see them on TV all the time. They don't have a clue what's going on. It ticks me off. Like, come spend a week over here. It irritates everybody."

East says about 70 percent of the Iraqis in general applaud the U.S. intervention. Among children, the informal poll runs about 95 percent in favor of the GIs. "People come to me all the time and really appreciate what we're doing over there," he said.

"I get so irritated with reporters over there. It's all bad stuff. They don't see the good stuff."

East spoke of rebuilding schools and upgrading hospitals as examples of positive steps the national media chooses to ignore. "It was unbelievable," he said of the squalid Iraqi living conditions. "They couldn't even get propane gas.

"Schools are now in the best shape they've ever been in right now. School teachers were only making $7 or $8 a month. Hospitals didn't even have running water. Hospitals are decent now."

East gave unconditional support to his commander-in-chief. "I love George Bush," said the son of Pat and Bill East. "And 90 percent of the people in the military do, too. He's a cowboy. He doesn't care - he'll go after you. That's why we like him."

East shared no such affection for Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton. "I didn't care for him." ....

rest of story

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