Thursday, August 28, 1997
Veterans receive medals of appreciation 53
year later
By BILL WHITAKER / Abilene Reporter-News
If anything surprised area D-Day veterans more than being awarded
battle medals 53 years after battle's end, it was that so many
of them were still alive.
"Maybe we're going to live forever," said 73-year-old
Denny McFarland of Abilene, a B-26 tail-gunner high above the
beaches of Normandy during the pivotal June 6, 1944 invasion by
Allied forces. "Maybe we're all too ornery to die!"
When it came to the "Jubilee of Liberty" medal bestowed
in gratitude by the people of Normandy, longevity -- maybe even
orneriness -- certainly helped. The medal was reportedly first
given to surviving D-Day veterans during 50th anniversary ceremonies
in Normandy in 1994.
Since then, efforts have been made to send medals to D-Day
veterans who did not return to Normandy for anniversary ceremonies.
Late Taylor County Veterans Service Officer Dan Garcia, his successor
Nebra Peters and their office staff have been seeking such veterans
to present them with the medals.
Only catch: The medals had to be given during a public ceremony.
So it was done Wednesday afternoon in the jury assembly room
of the Taylor County Courthouse -- a locale that almost immediately
proved too small, considering the 38 aging D-Day veterans, various
dignitaries, numerous well-wishers and proud kinfolks in attendance.
"We have about 40 recipients and we told them they could
each have four guests," Taylor County Veterans Service Office
staffer Sue Hoffman said good-naturedly, eyeballing the overflow
crowd in the jury assembly room. "Obviously, some have a
lot more than four!"
SEALED WITH A KISS
Some veterans voiced astonishment upon receiving a medal from
far-off Normandy in dusty West Texas.
"I'm kind of surprised they remembered it," 79-year-old
Army veteran William L. Allen said of latter-day French efforts
to acknowledge Americans who helped take France from the Nazis.
"I mean, I'd almost forgotten it myself!"
Abilene Mayor Gary McCaleb paid homage to "the people
who showed courage and bravery and valor in some of the most difficult
days of our nation's history." Dyess Col. Daniel L. Hoile
saluted the men for putting "their courage, honor and strength
of will on the line for everyone here today."
But the real highlights came from the aging veterans themselves,
a few needing help to hobble to the front of the room to accept
their medals, others thoughtfully trying to use humor to defuse
the strong emotions evident in the room.
For instance, when 73-year-old Joe Scurlock of Breckenridge,
formerly of the 101st Airborne, was moving through the line of
dignitaries after receiving his Jubilee of Liberty medal, he paused
when Jayne Schoonmaker of U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm's office
congratulated him.
"Congratulate me with a kiss," Scurlock said.
So she kissed him.
"You're lucky he was near the end of the line," Callahan
County Veterans Service Officer Tom Ivey told Schoonmaker later.
"If he'd been one of the first ones, you probably would've
had to kiss 'em all!"
A FEW MINUTES MORE
Willie Newsom, 76, who was with the Army Air Corps at the time
of the invasion, said the ceremony did conjure up heart-breaking,
long-ago images.
"It's kind of emotional," the lanky Tye businessman
said. "It was such a horrible thing -- so much death, and
you lost so many of your friends there -- that it's painful to
remember. To see so much death all around you, and at that age,
it just stays with you."
"They threw everything but the gun barrel at us,"
said 74-year-old Gus Glenewinkel of Abilene, later in life a diesel
mechanic but in June 1944 part of the 146th Engineer Combat Battalion
that led the invasion on Omaha Beach.
Spirits were high Wednesday, even though recipients and well-wishers
were crammed together for almost an hour. Just before the ceremony
began, the much-decorated McFarland checked his watch and declared
loudly such functions were "like school graduations: These
things never start on time!"
"That's all right," friend and equally decorated
fighter pilot Jack Connor of Abilene said. "We've waited
53 years. What's a few more minutes?"
D-DAY VETERANS AWARDED THE JUBILEE OF LIBERTY MEDAL WEDNESDAY:
James Adkins, William L. Allen, Robert C. Arrington, Ted Boswell
Jr., Thomas J. Brady, Erwin "Max" Brown, James W. Callaway,
Rosales Camillo, Kenneth B. Cleveland, John "Jack" Connor,
Raymond G. Fields, Hunter D. Gaither, William C. Garner.
Alvin E. Gilbert, Gus A. Glenewinkel, Harold C. Hale, Walter
M. Hartley Jr., Billy B. Hothan, Oran W. Huff, James W. Jennings,
Alvin E. Lashlee, Juan B. Lopez, Leroy "Denny" McFarland,
Willie J. Newsom, William H. Phillips, Arnel L. Powers, Hoyt Ross,
Chester H. Rubner Jr., William B. Schneider.
Joseph T. Scurlock, Elmer D. Stone, Eugene R. Swinson, James
H. Tally, Benjamin D. Watson Jr., Leslie E. White, Robert Wright,
Durward D. Young and Leonard D. Young.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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