news-record.com

Recent veterans columns have told how major churches in Greensboro -- First Presbyterian Church and West Market Street Methodist Church -- supported their parishioners and their men and women in service during World War II.

This column will tell about a smaller but no less dedicated church. During the war years, it was called First Pilgrim Church; since 1968, it has been Christ Weslyan Church, on South Holden Road.

During the war years, the church issued a monthly bulletin, "Garden Sass," a reference to its Pleasant Garden roots. This "Monthly Message To Our Boys In Service" went to all parishioners and men and women in uniform.

"Garden Sass" editors Ruth Hunt, Nell Sillmon and Ruth Weatherly reported in the January 1945 issue that "S/Sgt. Norman F. Stevens, 23, son and Mr. and Mrs. R. F. Stevens of route 1, Pleasant Garden was killed on Dec. 13." The article also noted that in addition to his parents, S/Sgt. Stevens is survived by "five brothers, H. Vance Stevens; Pvt. Dwight K. Stevens, stationed in southern England; Sgt. Walter J. Stevens, stationed in northern Ireland; Richard N. Stevens and R. Garland Stevens; and two sisters: Mrs. C. Ross Berry, Pleasant Garden; and Miss Rebecca Stevens, Greensboro."

The same issue reported that "Pfc. Walter M. Wright has been missing in action in Germany since Dec. 21, according to a message received from the war department by his wife, Mrs. Jennie B. Wright, Pleasant Garden."

Later information noted that Pfc. Wright was captured by attacking German troops during the early days of the Battle of the Bulge. He was a POW until the end of the war and returned home to lead an active life. Wright passed away several years ago. Each issue of "Garden Sass" had the names and military addresses of all local servicemen and women, so people on the home front could stay in contact with them.

l l l

Three anniversaries, important to all Americans but even more so to veterans, either have just been marked or will be marked in the next few days.

On Oct. 23, 1983 -- 25 years ago -- terrorists leveled the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. It was a suicide bombing and preceded the 9/11 attack on the New York World Trade Center buildings by 18 years.

The blast killed 241 American servicemen and wounded more than 100. Of the dead servicemen, 220 were American Marines; this was the largest loss of life for the Marines in a single day since the landings on Iwo Jima in February 1945, 38 years earlier.

This was not the first blow in the Muslim fundamentalist war against the west. Just six months earlier, in April 1983, explosions wrecked and almost destroyed the American embassy in Beirut; 63 were killed in the assault, including 17 Americans.

On Oct. 25, 1983, American forces intervened in Grenada after a bloody coup by Cuban forces: 7,300 Americans were in the assault force. Within a week, we announced that hostilities were over. Eighteen Americans were killed and more than 100 were wounded in this action.

And on Nov. 11, 1918, 90 years ago, World War I ended. It was called the Great War, and when it occurred, it was the biggest war ever fought. We entered the war (which had begun in Europe in August 1914) April 6, 1917. America assembled a military of more than 4,700,000. The American Expeditionary Force that we sent to France was led by Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing.

Many World War II veterans remember that their fathers told them about their war in France; names like Meuse-Argonne; Chateau Thierry; the Marne were places where American valor made the difference and where American blood was spilled.

A generation later, during WWII, the sons of those WWI veterans fought in the same places where their fathers had fought. They, too, made the difference and spilled blood in their drive for victory.

We lost 116,708 Americans in World War I (53,513 were killed in action and many of the others died in the influenza epidemic that swept the world) and more than 200,000 were wounded. It was not as bloody as our Civil War (620,000 Americans died) because medical care of had progressed to the point where many of the wounded, who would had died with similar wounds during the Civil War, were saved by prompt medical attention.

We Americans may have one veteran of that war still alive -- and we wish him only happiness during his remaining days.

These anniversaries remind us that we are a nation rich in heritage and honor and valor -- and, yes, tragedy. Today, our nation's service men and women are carrying on an American tradition that began in 1776: When the nation is in peril, ordinary citizens step up and defend our freedom. May God bless the veterans who came before us and protect and give comfort to those Americans who now keep us free.

l l l

Those who have served their country deserve to be remembered. Send me the names of any veterans who have died in the year 2008, and I will remember them in the last column of the year. Please include the veteran's full name; which war they were part of; branch of service and your name and telephone number. Deadline is Nov. 30.