Eschol R. Wilson, U.S. Army Tec 5, WWII: 1944-46.
By Glynn Wilson –
As Memorial Day Tribute, I am memorializing this here on the web to be archived in a more prominent and permanent place than Facebook.
This is a picture of my dad, Eschol Wilson, who served as a corporal in the U.S. Army near the end of World War II.
He was on a bus on the way to board a transport ship to go overseas and fight in the summer of 1945 when it was announced that his older brother, Curtis, was killed on the island of Okinawa in the Pacific Theater.
Per Army policy at the time, as the last surviving heir to carry on the family name, he was spared the trip abroad so never went overseas to fight in that honorable war to defeat the fascism of the German Nazis and the global domination ambitions of the Imperialists in Japan.
The Battle of Okinawa (April 1, 1945-June 22, 1945) was the last major battle of World War II, and one of the bloodiest.
On April 1, 1945 — Easter Sunday — the Navy’s Fifth Fleet and more than 180,000 U.S. Army and Marine Corps troops descended on the Pacific island of Okinawa for a final push towards Japan.
The invasion was part of Operation Iceberg, a complex plan to invade and occupy the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa. Though it resulted in an Allied victory, kamikaze fighters, rainy weather and fierce fighting on land, sea and air led to a large death toll on both sides.
My dad died of a heart attack on March 1, 1973 at the age of 47 after 20 years working for the old Southern Bell Telephone company in Birmingham, Alabama. I was only 15.
Back when my mom was alive, I attended a Memorial Day event with her when my dad was honored with a brick at a new Veterans Memorial in a new city park. I took photos and wrote about it.
Center Point Honors Veterans on Memorial Day
My mom, Margaret Wilson, who died at the age of 93 in December, 2019 — and was thus spared the horrors of COVID — also had a brother, Boyd “Buddy” Chester Walrond who died in the war on July 5, 1943.
My father’s dad, my grandfather Robert Lother Wilson, served in WWI. He never talked about it, but I found out after he died that he was exposed to mustard gas in that war.
National Freedom of The Press Day
It may be controversial to say it, but I believe we also need a national holiday to honor all the members of the press who have served their country and died in the name of protecting American democracy.
We already have two other days of the year to celebrate those who have served or are serving in the U.S. military: Armed Forces Day (which is earlier in May), an unofficial U.S. holiday for honoring those currently serving in the armed forces, and Veterans Day (on November 11), which honors those who have served in the United States Armed Forces.
When I have suggested this in the past, people like to say “every day is Freedom of the Press Day.” But that was not true for the past five years, when a certain presidential candidate and occupant of the White House called the press an “enemy of the people” and spawned a group that showed up on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol and scrawled “Murder the Media” on one of the doors on the building.
Have these SOBs been arrested yet?
A man who posed next to a ‘Murder the Media’ etching inside the U.S. Capitol Complex during the January 6 breaching later lied to a newspaper about being a journalist, according to an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Nicholas DeCarlo will face the following charges once arrested, according to the affidavit: Obstructing or impeding any official proceeding; Knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; and Parading or demonstrating on Capitol grounds. According to the affidavit, DeCarlo and his friend, Nicholas Ochs, livestreamed in the early hours of January 6, walking through D.C. with others.
Court docs: Man wore Murder the Media shirt to Capitol riot, then claimed to be a reporter
All the famous media commentators on TV would not know half of what they know without press reporters and writers.
There is a War Correspondents Memorial Arch at Crampton’s Gap at South Mountain in Sharpsburg, Maryland, and a tree in Arlington National Cemetery was also dedicated as a war correspondents’ memorial in 1986.
Both places might be worth a visit soon.
Meanwhile, here’s another memorable poem about war to remember on Memorial Day.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Meanwhile, a friend on Facebook shared this video with me. It’s saxophone player Mike Lushbaugh, a 2019 Inductee to The Maryland Entertainment Hall of Fame, playing “The Star Spangled Banner” with a flag in the background.
Inspiring & thanks-jim