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THURSDAY. MAY 14. 2020 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 7A
No Greater Sacrifice -The Patriot Stars. Part 1
A tribute to all those who have sacrificed in the service of our country
By Larry Cavender
Contributing writer
Regrettably, in recent
years, our nation has been di
vided and polarized in a way
that has not been equaled
since the days of the Civil
War. Demogogues give
speeches stating their desire
for unity, but these same
speeches are often peppered
with words preaching their
own brand of ideological di
vision.
Usually, in a time of crisis,
Americans unite, and during
the current Coronavirus pan
demic, there are signs of
some unity and of a coming
together. However, there are
some who still sow the seeds
of division even in today's
time of crisis. Regretfully,
some of the most guilty are
celebrityjoumalists, athletes,
musicians, and actors. Many
of these celebrities appear to
be lacking of a love of coun
try, and to some, "patriotism"
seems to be a "dirty word."
Yet, it has always been love
of country and patriotism that
has united America.
In the two weeks preced
ing Memorial Day, as a trib
ute to those who sacrificed in
the service of our country, the
Pickens County Progress will
harken to another era, to an
other time of crisis, when
Americans were unified al
most to a man. In a two part
series, brief profiles will
highlight four men, four
"celebrities," some well
known, some lesser known,
whose stories of sacrifice are
sure to inspire. These are sto
ries of a journalist, athlete,
musician, and an actor, who
were willing to sacrifice their
careers, and in some cases,
their lives, for their love of
country and for patriotism.
The first installment in
cludes profiles of a journalist
and an athlete.
The Journalist -
"The Soldiers' Buddy'"
There have been war cor
respondents for almost as
long as there have been wars,
at least since newspapers
began covering those wars.
During World War II, more
than 700 correspondents re
ported on that global conflict,
with over 450 reporting on
the D-Day landings alone.
Many were well-known
including novelists Ernest
Hemingway and John Stein
beck and radio broadcaster
Edward R. Murrow. How
ever, many of these reporters
seldom ventured close to the
front lines, and Murrow filed
his reports from the relative
safety of London. Yet, there
was one reporter who was al
most constantly on the front
lines and endured the mud
and filth of the same trenches
and foxholes of the fighting
soldiers and marines. While
the servicemen were armed
with rifles and bayonets, he
went into battle armed with
only a pen and paper.
Originally from Indiana,
he was middle-aged and
small in stature. He was em
ployed by the Scripps-
Howard News Service, and
between 1942 and 1944 he
reported from the front lines
of North Africa, Sicily, Italy,
and France. His reports were
trusted by readers on the
home front, but he was
beloved by those fighting on
the front lines. He wrote from
the heart, and it was obvious
to all his readers, his heart
was with the fighting men.
There is no greater testa
ment to his talent than his
own words. Of the soldiers,
he wrote, "In their eyes as
they pass is not hatred, not
excitement, not despair, not
the tonic of their victory....A
soldier who has been a long
time in the line does have a
'look' in his eyes....it is a look
that is a display room for
what lies behind it - exhaus
tion, lack of sleep, tension for
too long, weariness that is too
great, fear beyond fear, mis
ery to the point of numbness,
a look of surpassing indiffer
ence to anything anybody
can do."
During the Italy Cam
paign, following an horrific
and bloody battle, he saw
dozens of soldiers' corpses
being dragged down a hill
side to be laid in rows in a
roadbed. He wrote, "You
(Photograph courtesy of the
Georgia Institute of Technology’.)
Middle-aged and small in
stature, War Correspondent
Ernie Pyle reportedfrom the
front lines of World War II
in North Africa, Sicily, Italy,
France, and the South Pa
cific. Armed with only pen
and paper, Pyle endured the
mud and filth of the same
trenches and foxholes of the
fighting soldiers and
marines.
don't cover up dead men in
the combat zones. They just
lie there in the shadows until
somebody comes after
them." Soon, some of the sol
diers recognized among the
dead a favorite officer, a Cap
tain. "The men...seemed re
luctant to leave. They stood
around and gradually, I could
sense them moving one-by-
one close to the Captain's
body. Not so much to look, I
think, as to say something in
finality to him and to them
selves. I stood close by and I
could hear....A soldier came
and stood beside the officer
and he spoke to his dead cap
tain, not in a whisper but aw
fully tenderly, and he said, 'I
sure am sorry, Sir.'...Another
soldier squatted down and he
reached down and took the
captain's hand, and he sat
there a full five minutes hold
ing the dead hand in his own
and looking intently into the
dead face. And, he never ut
tered a sound all the time he
sat there. Finally, he put the
hand down. He reached over
and gently straightened...the
captain's shirt...then he got up
and walked away down the
road in the moonlight, all
alone."
After nearly three years of
covering the war from the
front lines, Ernie Pyle had
had enough. Unlike the sol
diers who had no choice, he
had the option of quitting and
going home. In September of
1944, shortly after the libera
tion of Paris, he told a soldier
friend, "I've been immersed
in it too long. The hurt has fi
nally become too great." Like
many others, the war had
changed him, for he wrote, "I
believe I have a new patience
with humanity that I've never
had before....I don't see how
any survivor of war can ever
be cruel to anything, ever
again." With his talent for
writing and a stellar reputa
tion, Pyle could have had any
reporting job he wished.
However, he quickly realized
he couldn't stay away. In
early 1945, he returned to the
front lines, this time to the
Pacific Theater, and soon he
was on the small island of Ie
Shima off the coast of Oki
nawa, preparing to ship with
a contingent of Marines to
that island which would be
come the scene of the blood
iest battle in the Pacific.
Before he got the chance
to depart Ie Shima for Oki
nawa, Ernie Pyle was killed
from a bullet to the head fired
from a Japanese sniper's rifle.
American soldiers found a
dispatch on his dead body.
Sensing that the war was
nearing an end, Pyle had ap-
During World War II, his reporting was trusted by those readers on the homefront, but
he was beloved by the front line soldiers and marines. Ernie Pyle is seen in this photograph
(Center, offering a cigarette to a marine) taken in April, 1945 on a small island off the coast
of Okinawa just a few days before his war correspondent career came to an end. (Photo
courtesy of the Scripps-Howard News Service.)
parently intended for it to be
published when victory was
declared. The words could
very well have been a self-
penned epitaph: "And so it is
over. The catastrophe...has
run its course. The day that it
had so long seemed would
never come has come at
last....It is easy for us to for
get the dead. These who are
gone would not wish them
selves to be a millstone of
gloom around our necks. But
there are many of the living
who have had burned into
their brains forever the unnat
ural sight of cold dead men
scattered over the hillsides
and in the ditches....These are
the things that you at home
need not even try to under
stand.... We saw him, saw him
by the multiple thousand.
That's the difference."
He was buried on Ie
Shima by those he loved and
who loved him, the front line
soldiers. They erected a grave
marker which read, "At this
spot the 77th Infantry lost a
Buddy. Ernie Pyle. 18 April
1945"
The Athlete -
"The Lost Legend"
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he helped his team upset
those same powerhouses who
had ignored him earlier that
year. In South Bend, he re
covered a fumble, threw a
touchdown pass, and set up
the game-winning touch
down with a long punt return
against Notre Dame's Fight
ing Irish. At Annapolis, he
scored on a 95-yard intercep
tion return, led two other
scoring drives, and batted
down three would-be scoring
passes by the Navy quarter
back in his team's defeat of
the Midshipmen.
Ironically, had he tried out
for his team a year earlier, he
would not have been allowed
to play, because in that era of
college football, freshmen
were banned from playing
varsity. In 1942, the NCAA
had relaxed its rides because
of the shortage of players,
simply because so many
young men had answered the
call of duty and were fighting
in the global conflict of
World War II.
Yet, in that same year, in
large part because of him, by
the latter part of the season
his undefeated team had risen
in the polls to Number 2 and
had become a presumptive
favorite to win the National
Championship. Sports re
porters had taken notice of
him, describing him as a
"crazed jackrabbit" and "the
most dangerous runner in
America."
But, a late season knee in
jury slowed him and his team
lost the last two games of the
season, first losing to the
Georgia Bulldogs, and then
falling to Texas in the Cotton
Bowl.
Those same sports writers
who had given him accolades
during the regular season re
membered him when it came
to voting for the Heisman
Trophy, even though, in that
age of college football, it was
unheard of for a freshman to
win the coveted award. In
fact, it was not until two
decades later that any player
other than a senior won the
Heisman, when, in 1963,
Navy quarterback Roger
Staubach won as a Junior.
However, Clint Castle
berry finished a surprising
third in the Heisman bal
loting that year, losing out
to Georgia's Frank
Sinkwich who had led the
Bulldogs in victory over
Castleberry's Georgia Tech
Yellow Jackets. It was a
sure bet that as a sopho
more, Castleberry would
break the undergraduate
barrier and win the Heis
man Trophy the following
year as a sophomore.
But, Clint Castleberry
would never win the Heis
man because he never got
another chance.
Following his freshman
season, like many other
young Americans in the
early 1940s, Castleberry
joined the armed services.
He became a bomber pilot
in the Army Air Corps, and
while flying a mission on
November 7th, 1944 off
the West African coast, his
B-25 Marauder disappeared.
Search-and-rescue crews
found only a few unidentifi
able pieces of wreckage in
the ocean after a week's
search.
Legendary Georgia Tech
Football Coach, Bobby
Dodd, who was an assistant
coach the year Castleberry
played, said of the star fresh
man running back, "He
would have probably been an
All-American for three
years...He was a great foot
ball player. He might have
been the best of them all had
he lived."
After his death, sports
pundits described Clint
Castleberry as "a lost leg
end," and to this day, Castle
berry's jersey remains the
only uniform ever retired by
Georgia Tech.
In next week's edition, the
Pickens County’ Progress will
profile a musician and an
actor.
Striking a Heisman Tro
phy pose, Clint Castleberry
is seen here in this photo
graph. As a freshman, in an
era when only seniors ever
won the coveted award,
Castleberry finished a sur
prising third in the Heisman
balloting following the 1942
season. He was predicted to
break the undergraduate
barrier the next season, but
he never got the chance.
Because of his diminu-
tivize size, he was not your
typical college football
player. He stood only 5'9"
and weighed just 155 pounds,
and this was the reason the
powerhouse football pro
grams of the day, Notre
Dame and Navy, failed to re
cruit him.
But, he was fast. And, elu
sive. And, after a hometown
university gave him a chance,
“I will be better” — Chris Tucker, Candidate for Sheriff
“When?” — Citizens and Voters of Pickens County
August 4,2016
CPT over the last few days I have had time to break down the complaint
and my actions that generated it. I would like to first apologize for my poor
decisions that has brought a bad light unto myself and our agency. I’m the
type guy who sets the standard and prides myself in doing the right thing
all the time. So I have had a hard time with this situation altogether since
the day it occurred. One of the complaints was that I opened their vehicle
door and blew the horn.This complaint was true unfortunately. I’m not
going to make any excuses for my actions because I was completely wrong.
For the life of me I don’t know why I made that decision. It was a poor
judgement call and well outside the standards I have set for myself and the
standards of our agency.The second sustained complaint was that I threat
ened a detained subject. I did in fact remove my pepper spray and tell the
subject that I would pepper spray him if he continued to scream and be
disorderly.When I went through the training program with the Savannah-
Chatham Metro police I was taught that you should try and threaten force
in an attempt to avoid using actual force.This method has been very suc
cessful for me while there.The issue I believe was not the actual threaten
ing to spray the subject but the entire situation and the poorly and
distasteful route I traveled to get to that point. I have beat myself up over
this incident pretty badly because I don’t conduct business like this. Since
I joined this agency I have had all eyes on me.The young guys want to learn
from me and “pick my brain” as they call it. I want to be a leader who not
only sets the standard but is the standard. I know where I went wrong and
I can assure you that I will learn from this and you can be sure we will
never have to revisit this issue. I take pride in having a strict set of values
that I live my life by Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-service, Honor, Integrity
and personal Courage. From the bottom of my heart I am truly sorry for
letting you guys down and causing unnecessary attention to our office. I
hope that in the future I will be able to prove my worth and show you that
I can and will learn from my mistakes. I will be better. Thanks Tucker
Mr. Tucker,
Once again, we have another one of your famous “I will be better”
apology letters as a result of your being disciplined for violating poli
cies and laws meant to protect the rights of citizens. There is a clear
and obvious pattern of your failure to abide by policies and laws. The
citizens of Pickens County expect our Sheriff to have the experience
and ethical standards necessary to do the job we elect them to do. Is
your “good ole boy” tactics of policing and bullying citizens the reason
why you are no longer employed with the Pickens Sheriffs Office?
Also, why are you a Reserve Deputy at an agency more than 300 miles
away from your home? How exactly is that beneficial to that commu
nity? Are there reasons why no other agencies in this area would hire
you or allow you to serve as a Reserve Deputy?
Again, the voters and taxpayers of Pickens County deserve more than
you are capable of providing as Sheriff.
Mr. Tucker; PLEASE remember, “Honesty is the first
chapter in the book of wisdom. ” — Thomas Jefferson
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