| Show EASTEK easter SE SER ONETTE MONETTE A mothers mother s love and faith carry her son through battle trials thi this is the second in a serif series of easter easier SeNnon etres being I 1 sponsored by the sup support 01 0 of churches committee of ake the vr vernal kinards club next week R rev ey alfred W harding pastor pastora of the st james catholic church will ill be guest writer by dr ray E Spond loys church of jesus christ of latter day saints the stor story y of easter and the r resurrection would not be cam without the story of a motors rs love for it was wa a jesus Illo holtier Lher who stood by at the foot of his cross in the anguish only a mother bould know she gave her beautiful spiritual and moral support through the most trying hours of his noble career her tender love and loyalty kept her with him to the end while others of his friends and apostles had deserted him and I 1 have not the slightest doubt that her strength of character and her love greatly bolstered his courage which was so sore lv tried there on mt calvary for even in his majesty majest he ile was its endowed with certa certain I 1 weaknesses ot of the flesh on my office wall hanging with my collection of plaques are three souvenirs of world war II 11 the purple heart the bronze star and the silver star the latter two could just as rightly adorn my mothers mother a wall as my own for she sent something thin to war with me without which c those awards would never have been made during the war I 1 volunteered for the paratroops and thus became a battalion surgeon in the th parachute infantry I 1 was committed into battle five different times and three of those times netted us very heavy losses our standard procedure while in battle was this no matter where we were by sundown each man must start to dig his own foxhole fox hole the aid ai dirien men dug holes for the wounded by dusk every ever v man must crawl into his hit hole and under NO circumstances come out until dawn under penalty of death anything that moved above gund at ight light was a jap and ali to be shot instantly and strict silence was to be maintained on one of our engagements when 90 of the men contracted a very serious dysentery some of the men could not stand the f filth of their fox holes until dawn an and d crawled out only t to 0 be shot by our own soldiers it seems that for every rule there is most always an exception and to the me ruie rule of staying in the holes all night the medics made the exception night time was the favorite time for the jape Js to pull their banzi charges an and our procedure made it possible to kill 40 or 50 japs for every loss of our own yet when they would start throwing in their grenades lobbing bobbing over their mortar and bracketing in their artillery some of us were blind to get hurt we found that when a soldier was wounded at night he demanded attention just as urgently as if he were wounded yn in the daylight this could only mean that the medics had to crawl out and attend to their suffering the order to remain silent meant nothing to a soldier with his arms or leg blown off or his chest or belly full of shrapnel he would scream medics help medics q until the medics bedics came crawling on their J hies wes to administer soothing morphine and control bleeding as best he could under the strained circumstances As we would crawl out of our foxholes we were not quite 11 so 0 afraid of the enemy as of the hundred rifles of our bvm men with their beads drawn on us and we vie would never have made the cirit 10 feet if we did not constantly mil all wt olt as we crawled for forward word dont shoot the medics are coming dont shoot were the medics how far we could trust those nervous trig gey fingers was seriously questioned after we lost one medic at the hands of one of our own buys the screams of our wounded were encouraging to the japs laps for they knew them they had scored and they would keep beep lobbing bobbing more grenades in the direction of the screams hoping to score ag again sin and possibly claim a few medics in the bargain our calling as we crawled served no useful purpose in concealing our position position from the japs and with the crack of the ca cap igniting a grenade fuse wed freeze freeze with our faces in the dirt until the grenade had landed and arid burst then wed crawl on in our arre for the wounded had to b carried out in ili total darkness dar dark knes nev as a light would pinpoint pin point our positions to the enemy after sweating out many of these horror stricken nights death came nearest at a most unexpected time in midd midday mid day d out of a clear quiet san death deat rained all about me in a hellish m mortar 0 artar attack A whole barage of 81 mm shells seemed to explode in our midst almost sim u and I 1 was picked up by a concussion wave and arid dashed clashed to the ground the jeep near which I 1 stood was demolished and my dead comrades lie thick around I 1 had only a I 1 banded wounded leg where a chunk of shrapnel had gone through I 1 spent two months in a hospital and was released with a pretty good leg I 1 went back to my out lit and found they were just making preparation for another parachute mission on northern luzon two months in a hospital had not prepared me for another parachute mission but D day came and we loaded into our planes the tight parachute harness and the heavy pack seemed almost more than my weary legs could bear As we flew to our destination I 1 stood in the open door of the C 47 contemplating the dark jungle below knowing soon id be back in those nightmarish holes the memory ot of all those narrow escapes id endured went through my mind and here I 1 was again ready to jump out and begin it all anew the thought of being shot while drifting down in a parachute was always something to ponder this was my jump eighteen men were in the plane with me relying or me to stand there in the door and at the proper instant lead them out into thin air on nylon chutes I 1 knew that of myself I 1 did not have the courage courne to do this thing again but as I 1 stood there that day I 1 repeated over and over the thing that had given iven me strength and which I 1 f knew new had preserved my life before it was a promise my mother had made when shed said goodbye As the tears rolled down her cheeks C her words became prophetic and she said my son I 1 promise you in the name of jesus christ that you shall return to me sate safe and bound sound 11 I 1 was still baying haying these words to myself as the red light glowed on and all 10 19 of us stood close in line hooked up and sounded off for equipment check A prayer was on my lips as the green light flashed on and out we went one thousand two thousand and the sudden jerk caused by the opening ol 01 the ri nylon parachute suddenly erdy brought me back to the realization that here we were in it again thank god for the comforting promise of my dear mother for growth trees require a bala balanced noad diet according to the national arborist As by your local arborist can itell don what food a tron may lack |
