Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Jackal1 on June 18, 2006, 09:52:19 AM
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I had planned on and prepared for this weekend`s events during the Audie Murphy Days celebration for some time. I had the digital charged up and a recorder at hand. I had hoped for many pictures and some discussion with the guys from Tuskegee.
So...how did it pan out?
Well........Mr. Pain and his first cousin M. Spasm decided it was a very opportune time to pay me a visit.
So....I sat here lashed to a TENS unit , nibbling muscle relaxers and throwing curve balls to the Icelandic and Qatarish instead. :)
Here`s the article from the Herald Blunder...................... ....
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It was time to remember heroes
By BRAD KELLAR
Herald-Banner Staff
GREENVILLE — Saturday’s conclusion of the annual Audie Murphy Days event in Greenville was a time set aside not only to honor heroes, but to remember just what a hero is.
Dr. David A. Smith, a lecturer in history for Baylor University, said without a doubt, Murphy was a true hero.
“He did all that a soldier could be asked to do,” Smith told the audience gathered in the Fletcher Warren Civic Center. “He became the example of an American soldier.”
Murphy was born near Kingston in 1924 and enlisted in the Army in Greenville on his 18th birthday. During his three years of active service, Murphy received every decoration of valor that the United States had to offer, some of them more than once, including five decorations by France and Belgium. Among his 33 awards and decorations is the Medal of Honor, the highest military award for bravery that can be given to any individual in the United States of America.
Murphy went on to have a successful movie career before dying in a plane crash in 1971.
His life is the subject of the local celebration, held each year in conjunction with his birthday.
Smith said Murphy’s life can and should stand for something even higher. Flanked on the dais by former POW Harry Thompson and two members of the fabled Tuskegee Airmen, Smith said all such heroes should also be considered as teachers.
“Audie Murphy, these men upon the stage with me, if we commemorate them, we are, in a sense, learning from them,” Smith said. “Heroes teach virtue. They teach through what they did.”
Smith said modern culture places too much emphasis on celebrities as heroes and role models, when in reality, people such as Murphy should serve as the standard.
“We need to know what valor looks like and we cannot teach it, it has to be demonstrated,” Smith said. “Audie has been gone for 35 years, but the beautiful thing is he’s still teaching what it means to be heroic and courageous and patriotic.”
Saturday’s afternoon session also featured appearances by Capt. Claude R. Platte and Sgt. John Flanagan with the Tuskegee Airmen, African-American pilots who trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Ala., between 1941 and 1946. During World War II, the 332nd Fighter Group never lost a bomber to enemy fighters, the only fighter group to boast that record.
Platte, who served as a primary flight instructor, trained over 300 pilots to solo and fly PT13s, PT17s and PT19s. Platte became the first Black officer to be trained and commissioned in the newly reopened Air Force pilot training program at Randolph Field Air Force Base.
Platte recalled the powers that be at the time wanted him to enter a different area of military service.
“They wanted me to be a cook,” Platte said.
Flanagan served as a communications technician and after the war went on to secure a private pilot’s license.
He recalled being in the South Pacific when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then later was recruited to the Tuskegee program by the same pilot who flew First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
“Those are the two things that really enriched me life,” Flanagan said.
Saturday’s schedule also featured appearances by U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall; Neil Summers, a stuntman who appeared with Murphy in the movie “Arizona Raiders”; Lt. General John Van Alstyne, the Commandant of Cadets and Head of the School of Military Sciences at Texas A&M University; musical performances by the Wesley Trio and bagpipe artist Gary Woodall; movie night at the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum and a candlelight ceremony at the foot of Murphy’s statue on the museum grounds.
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I hate to hear your in pain & missed an opportunity to meet some of the Tuskegee airmen. I saw the movie & have read a couple of books; those guys never losing a bomber to enemy A/C on their escort missions was incredible.
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Yea, it was pretty awesome.
I`m always interested in folks who beat the odds.
These guys done just that on many levels.
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Mr. Ledbetter was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen and served on our local school board for many years. I had the honor to meet and talk with him a few years back. He was recognized as a "gunner ace" in a b-25 with 5 confirmed kills, and was the Army Air corps middleweight champ for 2 years.