How is Your Patriotic Footprint?

Yeah I know it’s been a month since I wrote a blog but this has been a week to reflect and wonder. Spring is here, nature has gushed forward with a world of wonder and excitement and mans hope is renewed. This being said, there have been some mixed and sad events this spring as well. Being an active Patriot Guard Rider I have had both honor and sadness in participation of several funerals and memorials. The latest being the final burial of a B-17G bomber crewman from Pensacola whose aircraft went down to what must have been like descending into hell for this young man. Nineteen years old and suddenly he was aboard a heavy bomber doing his duty for GOD and country in the skies over Germany. Do you remember what you were doing at nineteen? Maybe you were preparing for college or experiencing your first year of college. Maybe you had just entered the workforce for the first time since becoming an adult. Maybe you were still living at home trying to decide what to do with your life. This boy made the decision to join the Army Air Force to protect his country and met death head on.

I found an article on the internet from a WWII vet who was also in the skies in a B-17 bomber that day. His memoires told of seeing a B-17G aircraft by the name of Towering Titan take a hit to a starboard engine that began to flame up and smoke. He said the pilots extinguished the flames but now with reduced power had to dump their bomb load and make a run for home. When a B-17 bomber became damaged and had to turn back over enemy territory they were sitting ducks for the enemy fighters and the other B-17s in the formation could only watch most likely what would be the last time the crew would ever be seen again alive. This B-17 airman said in his writings the last thing he saw of Towering Titan was the rear gunner waving bye to him as she took that deep right turn toward home. A short time later one of Hitler’s new weapons, a Jet powered aircraft, would slam into that wing and send the Towering Titan to her death. TSGT Walter Adell McClellan would make it to a hatch in time to parachute out to a new hell waiting for him below. He would be captured but the Nazi SS, tortured and then coldly executed by the Nazi SS. It would be 65 years before anyone knew of his fate, bravery and sacrifice. .

It was a bitter sweet victory for Sgt McClellan’s family. He was finally coming home to hallowed ground but nearly all but one that knew and remembered him had already passed on. There is few living that truly understands the sacrifices of the greatest generation, to remember not of his life, but of the valor in death. We don’t know of his childhood but we do know of his decision to sacrifice his life at only 19 yrs of age for his country. Would we have heard of him had his body not been found in Germany and identified? Do we know of others lost in WWII, The Korean War, and the Vietnam War? Probably not and chances are we haven’t even thought of them and shortly after this article will not think of them again.

There are 3,350 still missing from WWI, 8,215 still missing from The Korean War, 2005 still missing from the Vietnam War and 78,750 still missing from WWII. That is a total of 92,320 American Heroes still missing in battlefields around the world just so that we can sleep at night without fear of the Adolph Hitler’s of the world.

Forget about the leaving a carbon footprint garbage, fifty years from now will anyone remember you for your carbon footprint, that you drove a Prius and didn’t use tree products? No one will care, no one will remember. But if you took up arms against the enemies of your country, against those who would threaten do destroy the very fiber of your God given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then the history books that accurately record that time in history will include your name whether as an individual or a group. This great nation did not arrive at freedoms door by accident, it scratched and crawled every step of the way through the blood of its citizens because of our belief in the ideals and people that make up the United States of America.

Our children and many of our people have no idea how close we came in WWII to having enemy troops back on our shores. They have no idea the sacrifices made by their parents and grandparents to make sure our troops were well fed and armed. Our automobile, sewing machine, many other manufacturers gave up the profits to produce weapons, tanks and aircraft that would be used to defeat the evil axis of Europe. Please don’t trivialize one single member of the United States Armed Forces, without them you would be speaking German, Japanese or maybe even Arabic.

You say you have never been in the military and how can you make a patriotic footprint? It's quite easy actually. Ms Annie Schirmer is a late 70s grandmother who volunteers her time making up packages for our servicemen and women overseas. Every week she picks up soaps, shampoos and snacks boxes them up and mails them out. You may have never heard of Annie Schiramer but a lot of our military have.

Find yourself a veteran today, no matter the age or war and the more you find the better…. And THANK THEM for their service. They went so you wouldn’t have to. If you are a veteran reading this article…. THANK YOU for serving and protecting me and my family. Thank you for sacrificing your memories of childhood, friends and family for the horrors of war that still haunt you. Thank you for putting your life on the line unselfishly. You are now and will always be my HEROES. God bless you all and GOD BLESS AMERICA