Clemson and Memorial Day: Where do we find such men? |
Where do we find such men?
Today is Memorial Day, and while I will later spend time with the baseball team as it learns its fate in the NCAA Tournament, others will take the time to cook out, swim, watch sports, and have picnics. For many, it’s a day off of work. I implore you not to think of it in that way. When Clemson played at Maryland several years ago, Nikki and I rented a car at the airport and drove to Gettysburg for the day. The day was cloudy and cool, and when we parked near Cemetery Ridge, Nikki let me wander, alone, out among the monuments. A breeze was blowing, a portent of the rain and cold to come, and I could hear the last of autumn’s leaves rustling in the trees above my head as I walked that hallowed ground. I strolled to The Angle, near the apex of Pickett’s famous charge, and stood near the spot where a 22-year-old Lieutenant named Alonzo Cushing directed a battery during the charge. Cushing suffered a wound to his shoulder, and then shell fragments entered his groin and abdomen. He held his intestines in with one hand and continued to direct what was left of his battery. A superior officer told Cushing to go to the rear, but this young man had his sergeant hold him aloft while he continued to shout orders. An enemy bullet struck him in the mouth, and he was laid slumped over one of his cannons that he had bravely tried to defend. Where do we find such men? I am not ashamed to admit that the tears fell as I stood on this famous spot, where two great armies collided, where men fought and died. There is a weighty feeling to standing on that ground, and as I stood looking towards the Emmitsburg Road, I blinked the tears away and once again wondered what makes a man brave shot and shell for a cause? For an ideal? I have stood on many battlefields, from Gettysburg to Chickamauga to the Little Bighorn to Kings Mountain and Cowpens, and I always stand in awe at the men our nation produces. It was on one of our football trips – to Syracuse – when we stopped at a restaurant in Tonawanda, New York, to eat on our way to Niagara Falls. There was a historical marker nearby honoring someone named Charles N. DeGlopper. DeGlopper was born and raised on Grand Island, which is near the falls. He went to school in a one-room schoolhouse before heading across the river to Tonawanda High School. He enlisted and served in the 82nd Airborne when World War II came along. He had sandy blonde hair and green eyes and was known as a quiet kid. He was a rarity in the Army, standing a full 6-6 – and the Army had to send off to find shoes and clothes that would fit him when he enlisted. One of his friends told the story that when they went out on bivouac the first time, DeGlopper’s feet stuck out of the pup tent, and he asked one of his friends to cover them up. He was sent to the European Theater in April of 1943, and there, he and his company served in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France. Three days into the D-Day invasion, DeGlopper landed behind enemy lines near the Merderet River, at La Fière, France. Soon cut off from their regiment, his platoon was outnumbered by Nazi soldiers and pinned down behind a hedgerow. To give his platoon a chance to escape, PFC DeGlopper jumped into the middle of the road and took a stand with a heavy automatic rifle—deliberately drawing enemy fire on himself. He was hit by enemy fire once but got back and continued to return fire. He was shot a second time but once again got back up and returned fire until his platoon escaped to a more advantageous position. Kneeling in the roadway, weakened by his grievous wounds, he leveled his heavy weapon against the enemy and fired burst after burst until he was killed outright. He was successful in drawing the enemy action away from his fellow soldiers, who continued the fight from a more advantageous position and established the first bridgehead over the Merderet. There is a monument in France, not far from where he fell. Where do we find such men? I have never visited Normandy – it’s a bucket list item – and I want to visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer. The rows and rows of white crosses signify the last resting place of 9,338 of our boys who never made it home. I hope one day to explain to my boys the significance of those crosses and what they represent. Who they represent. Where do we find such men? In Ronald Reagan’s address to the nation on Armed Forces Day in 1982, he said this: “In James Michener's book `The Bridges at Toko-Ri,' he writes of an officer waiting through the night for the return of planes to a carrier as dawn is coming on. And he asks, ‘Where do we find such men?' Well, we find them where we've always found them. They are the product of the freest society man has ever known. They make a commitment to the military -- make it freely, because the birthright we share as Americans is worth defending. God bless America.” At the memorial service for Major Dick Winters, the man from Easy Company and Band of Brothers, a eulogist said, “Where do we find such men? I doubt anyone can answer that. But thank God, thank God, that men such as Dick Winters come forward when our country needs them.” I will leave you with a stanza from Laurence Binyon’s poem “For the Fallen.” They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
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