|
To the Editor:
Please consider reprinting the following,
which was a presentation by H. Maury Drummond, executive director,
USS Kidd Veterans Memorial, Baton Rouge, LA and past president,
Historic Naval Ships Assn., at the Tin Can Sailors Association
Banquet at the annual conference in Las Vegas, NV, on February 6,
1996
Howard Green
Safety Harbor
‘Just A Piece Of Cloth’
by H. Maury Drummond
A few years ago, I was in my car listening
to a radio call-in talk show and the topic of the conversation was
that of whether it was proper for people to burn the American flag
in protest or if it was a protected individual freedom. During the
talk show, someone called in and said they didn’t understand
what all the controversy was about over “just a piece of
cloth.”
The image struck me immediately of the
Marines on Iwo Jima with their faces down in the volcanic ash and
looking up at Mount Suribachi to see the flag being raised. Surely,
they didn’t consider it to be just a piece of cloth. When I
arrived home that evening, I put the following thoughts down on
paper and I believe that it expresses my beliefs and my feelings of
who I am and the love that I have for this country.
I entitled it:
“Just A Piece Of Cloth.”
I was with Colonel Parker and the
Minutemen at Lexington and Concord to hear “The Shot Heard
‘Round The World” that began the American Revolution. I
was with General Washington when he crossed the Delaware and
suffered with his men in the harsh winter at Valley Forge.
Did they fight and die for just a piece of
cloth?
I was with Ethan Allen and his Green
Mountain Boys at Ticonderoga and with Washington, Hancock and the
Marquis de Lafayette to accept surrender terms at Yorktown with the
British playing that old European tune “The World Turned
Upside Down.”
Did they fight and die for just a piece of
cloth?
I was with Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte
at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. I was with Lee and Longstreet
and all the Boys in Gray at Gettysburg and I was with all the Boys
in Blue with General Mead and Colonel Chamberlain on Little Round
Top. I was with Grant in the Wilderness and at Vicksburg. I was
with both the Blue and Gray when our country was healed at
Appomattox.
Did they fight and die for just a piece of
cloth?
I was with Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough
Riders on San Juan Hill and with Admiral Dewey and the Great White
Fleet in Manila Bay. I was with the Dough Boys in World War I, the
“War To End All Wars,” and I now lie buried in Flanders
Field.
Did they fight and die for just a piece of
cloth?
I was with Admiral Isaac Kidd aboard the
“Arizona” that fateful Sunday morning in 1941. 1 was
with the infantry that landed on beaches so far away named Omaha,
Juno, Utah, Sword and Gold.
Did they fight and die for just a piece of
cloth?
I was with General Wainwright on
Corregidor. I was with Admiral Fletcher in the Battle of the Coral
Sea. I was aboard the “Enterprise,” the
“Hornet” and the “Yorktown” at Midway.
Did they fight and die for just a piece of
cloth?
I fought at Kwajalein, the Baffle of Leyte
Gulf, at bloody Tarawa, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima and served on
destroyers on picket duty off Okinawa.
Did they fight and die for just a piece of
cloth?
I flew Saber jets in MIG Alley in North
Korea and I was with the Marine Corps at Chosin Reservoir. I was
with the Navy at Inchon Harbor and fought on hills called Bloody,
Heartbreak, Old Baldy and Porkchop.
Did they fight and die for just a piece of
cloth?
I flew bombing missions over Hanoi and was
on Rat Patrol in the Mekong Delta. I was with the Navy on Yankee
Station in the Tonkin Gulf. I flew night missions over Baghdad and
was with the battalions in Desert Storm.
Did they fight and die for just a piece of
cloth?
Freedom is not free. It has a price and it
has been paid many times by many people. I am a product of my past.
I am what you have made me. I am an American and I am free.
|
Front Page 
Op-Ed 
