Veterans Day

 

DENCHFIELD RAYMOND

CAPT. US ARMY

30 NOV 1950

KIA CHOSIN RESERVOIR

We are a military family. Men in every generation back to the 1700s (and probably before) have donned the uniform of their country. Fortunately, all except one returned home safely to pass away of old age. Today is for Capt. Raymond C. Denchfield.

WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER
By Judith Knight

We've all heard
This casual remark
And thought little of it
And just as well
For whoever heard
Of a frozen hell

Well listen to me
And you will know
Of the frozen hell
Where soldiers go
I can tell you now
How it was then
When I went to hell
And back again.

It was back in fifty
You know the score
When the Thirty-first
Went off to war.
We were the Polar Bears!
We'd been around,
But we almost lost it
On that frozen ground.

It was called Chosin
That frozen place
Unhabitable I'd say
By Gods own race
But there we were
At forty below with frozen ear
And frozen toe
With weapon frozen
To the hand
Then forced to fight
For this bitter land
Out-numbered there
By the Devils brood
Fighting to death
And dying crude.

We did not bleed
For our blood was frozen
There on the battleground
We recall as Chosin
And on we went
Our numbers small
To Hagarui-ri,
As I recall.

And even in Hell
A hero's born
And we had ours
That frozen morn
When Donald Faith
Redeemed us there
But stayed behind
In the Devils lair.

Like one before
A sacrifice made
He gave his life
For those he saved
Four thousand strong
Were nevermore
Three thousand lay
On the Devils floor

And of those left
To fight again
There were but a handful
Of Faith's own men
He led us out
That day from Hell
It's sacred ground
Where our hero fell.

A rag-tag lot
Half-frozen men
Half-able but willing
To fight again
And I am one
And you may be too
We are known today
As the Chosin Few!

I Never Did Anything Twice

 

This is an attempt to leave a group of articles for my children about my life.  To start will just a few of the places lived between the ages of birth to age 20 when my daughter was born.

My parents:  Robert White & Mary Ellen Pifer White

 

Los Angeles - 1944

1945 - Oakland

Aunt Ruth and Janet

Earhart House 1946 Westchester

Hammer Field, Fresno 1948

I'll Be Back

Heads up, I'm gatting back in to the regular writing game. It's 2024 and there just might be something I want to say. In the meantime, a morning earworm.

Mary Did You Know

Look into the face of Mary and see what the sculptor of the pieta did in 1499. Across her lap is the body of her 33 year old son, but her face is that of the teenage girl who first heard an angel announce that she was about to become an unwed mother. She had no guarantee that Joseph would marry her. She lived in a culture that severely punished anything that was considered immorality in women, yet she accepted the duty placed on her, and this is the way that duty ended with her beloved child dead in her arms not knowing yet where this road will end. There is grief on that face, but there is acceptance and trust in the future as well. Michaelangelo takes a block of hard, cold marble and makes you see the passion, glory and the ultimate end of doing one's duty no matter where it leads as a simple act of faith.

In 1972 a man by the name of LASZLO TOTH damaged the Pieta with a hammer. He was never charged with a criminal offense. On 29 January of the following year he was declared a dangerous person and was ordered confined to a mental hospital. On 9 February 1975, the Hungarian-born, Australian geologist was released from the hospital and deported from Italy as an undesirable alien. His act of madness had it's own result. The Vatican announced that the team of restorers attempting to repair the damage that Toth had inflicted on the Pieta had discovered a previously unknown secret signature of Michelangelo on the palm of the Madonna's left hand - an "M" fashioned from the skin lines reproduced in marble as another mark from the genius who brought her to life once more.

Several centuries later another great sculptor took on a similar subject. Marble was not August Rodin's favorite medium, yet he produced many famous ones such as The Kiss, The Lovers, and The Hand of God. Instead of marble he preferred the casting in bronze and one of his greatest is the Fallen Caryatid.


Years ago, Robert Heinlein used this bronze of the Caryatid in Stranger in a Strange Land to attempt to show beauty where apparently there was none. His words:

This poor little caryatid has fallen under the load. She's a good girl---look at her face. Serious, unhappy at her failure, not blaming anyone,not even the gods and still trying to shoulder her load, after she's crumpled under it.

But she's more than just good art denouncing bad art; she's a symbol for every woman who ever shouldered a load too heavy. But not alone women---this symbol means every man and woman who ever sweated out life in uncomplaining fortitude until they crumpled under their loads. It's courage...and victory. Victory in defeat, there is none higher. She didn't give up...she's still trying to lift that stone after it has crushed her...she's all the unsung heroes who couldn't make it but never quit.

So there you have two young girls, one in marble and the other in bronze trying to lift marble, who were asked to shoulder burdens way beyond their years. In the process they become examples to all of the glory that comes from simply doing what is right when it is necessary.