Friday, September 26, 2003

By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

I have written somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 articles for The Citizen newspapers. A number of those articles have generated letters and some of those letter are truly worthy of sharing. With his permission, I share with you a letter from Marine combat veteran Jim Lowe of Peachtree City:

"It was in 1962 when I graduated from the University of Notre Dame (as probably the only Methodist kid who could recite the 'Hail Mary' in four languages) and enlisted in the Marine Corps and wound up in Officer Candidate School in Quantico, VA, much to the despair of my parents who were expecting me to attend law school since I had acceptance and scholarships, rather than 'throw away a college education.' In those days, when you lived under your parent's roof, you were expected to obey thefifth commandment in accordance withtheir interpretation, and it wasn't up for vote.

"I did what I thought I needed to do, but probablynot very diplomatically. Iwasthe commander of the first platoon off the USS Guadalcanal during thePanama riots in February of 1964 and spent fourteen monthsin 1965-1966 as an advisor in I Corps in Viet Nam.My three children, now all responsible parents and Christians, thanks to my bride of forty years, requested I write a journal about my experiences, particularly Viet Nam, which Ihave never beeninclined to talk about. I was not blessed with ... written communications skills.

"For the past few years Iran my own business as a power plant startup engineer until 2000+ pounds of steel in the form of an unsecured ladder and access platform fell on me last March. Besides 200+ sutures to my head (best surgeon in Virginia but unable to improve my looks one iota), Isuffered considerable damage to my upper thorax and cervical vertebrae which has kept me pretty much confined to this recliner chair in my home office.

"In spite of this setback, that limits me to three sets of half hour therapy exercises per day and a three mile walk that now takes me an hour and a half instead of the45 minutes that I walked and ran last year, I feel very blessed to not be more of a burden to Sandy than I was as a near vegetable my first few weeks back home from the last near fatal job site incident.

"In deference to my children's requests, the following is an excerpt from my journal that recalls a discussion between my dad andme after my return from Viet Nam:

"As a 25-year-old Marine lieutenant with a chest full of ribbons, wings and expert rifle and pistol badges, I was feeling I was pretty hot stuff. Just then my dad walked up.

"Too young for WW I and too old for WW II, my dad had never been in the military. The whole family had no career military people, only draft inductees during WW II, only a few of which, reached the NCO ranks. Both my dad and my mom were extremely disappointed that I entered the military after college instead of accepting one of the offered law school scholarships. Disappointed is probably too mild a term. To them, military service was for people who couldn't find or handle a real job. And I think most civilians felt that way.

"'Son,' Dad said, 'it looks like you are doing well in the military, but I'd like to ask you a question.'

"'Well? Doing well?' I thought. I was first in my class at OCS and at The Officers Basic School where, after Viet Nam, they assigned me as a staff officer and instructor. I have a chest full of ribbons including two Bronze Stars with Combat Vs and I will become the youngest captain in the Marine Corps since Korea. I was thinking I was doing much better than just doing 'well.'

"'What is the question, Dad?'

"'Son, when are they going to give you some stripes?'

"This was not the time and place to explain military enlisted, warrant officer and officer ranks to anyone unfamiliar with the military. And when I pondered stripes, I thought about Gunnery Sergeant Jim Sharp, who as a black, sixteen-year-old kid, joined the Marine Corps and became the battalion sniper in Korea and was awarded a Silver Star by the time he was eighteen. On second thought, I realized, I wasn't such hot stuff after all.

"'I'm not that good yet, Dad, but I'm working at it."

"So, in writing the 'Jarhead's Journal' to fill the recovery hours and fulfill my children's request, I took a break and enjoyedyour article (about the young man who graduated from Parris Island) and your insights, which I could never match in content, syntax or diction. But given that my recollectionsare only for internal family use, allI need do is spell check and paginate some 300 to 400 pages, without even having to translate from Hoosier to English.

"Thanks again forwriting an article that inspires all us jarheads.

"God bless and Semper Fidelis."

Jim, I think your written communication skills are great as are your content, syntax and diction. Thank you for proving that, in every generation, there are patriots ready to defend freedom, even when others are seeking a way out. God bless you, welcome home, may God grant you a full recovery, and Semper Fi!

[David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church, which meets at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sundays on Ga. Highway 34 between Peachtree City and Newnan. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.CTKCEC.org.]

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