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A Peaceful War Hero
Rich Galen Friday August 19, 2005
The August Story this year is Cindy Sheehan. The corps pressed into service covering the President's stay at Prairie Chapel Ranch just outside beautiful downtown Crawford, Texas is thrilled to have something to cover - even if that something is Cindy Sheehan who has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of MoveOn.org and other members of the Democratic Left.
I have a better August story. It is the pretty simple story of a man named Cecil Matheney who happened to be sitting next to me on an airplane on Wednesday afternoon.
While the press is breathlessly reporting the tens of people who have gathered in various places in support of Mrs. Sheehan who is, quite understandably, distraught over the loss of her son in Iraq, Mr. Matheney was traveling to Washington, DC to meet up with some guys he hasn't seen in a while.
Cecil Matheney, it seems, joined the Marine Corps when he was 17 years old. He was discharged as a Corporal three years later at the age of 20.
Nothing so remarkable about that. Except CPL Matheney was awarded not one, but two Purple Hearts for wounds incurred while under enemy fire.
And those wounds were inflicted by the enemy he was facing while invading Guam and Iwo Jima sixty years ago.
Cecil Matheney is, in his words, "eighty-sumpm'm," and he was on his way from his home in Jackson, Mississippi to Washington for a reunion with other veterans of the Iwo Jima campaign. "Ten guys I was with are gonna be there," he said.
Iwo Jima is an island a little over 2 miles wide and four miles long. The Battle of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945 (over three years after Pearl Harbor) making this the 60th anniversary of that bloody battle.
Some 7,000 Marines were killed during the course of the battle which lasted a little more than a month including three of the men who are preserved for all history in the famous photo by the AP's Joe Rosenthal raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi.
Cecil Matheney hadn't yet finished high school when he joined the Marines to help the cause of freedom. As a teenager, he was among the 26,000 wounded in the battle.
Over 1,800 American service members have been killed in Iraq since we liberated that country.
In 2004 there were over 40,000 traffic fatalities in the United States. Statistics from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration indicate that young men and women between 16 and 24 - about the age of the majority of American service members - account for 25 percent of those deaths.
In 2004 alone some 10,000 young American men and women died in motor vehicle accidents, a significant number fueled by alcohol
In that same year, 848 American service members were killed in Iraq, a significant number fueled by a sense of purpose and meaning. Among them was Casey Sheehan.
Perhaps MoveOne.org should sponsor vigils outside the corporate headquarters of General Motors and Ford and Chrysler and Toyota and Nissan and Hyundai and Kia and �
Cecil Matheney told me that in January 1946, when his enlistment was up, he was asked to stay in the Corps but he declined. "All I wanted to do," he said, "was to get a fishing pole and sit on a dock and hope the fish didn't bite. Just wanted to sit in peace."
Maybe CPL Matheney has hit on something. Maybe every returning member of the Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy or Coast Guard should be handed a fishing pole and led to a quiet place to put a hook in. And left to sit in peace for as long as they need to sit there.
Like Cecil Matheney.
A peaceful war hero.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the Jackson, MS newspaper article about CPL Matheney, the Mt. Suribachi photo, a photo of CPL Matheney and me, and an interesting Separated at birth.
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Copyright © 2005 Richard A. Galen
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