Most of you know about my father's condition...mentioned it on a thread about a month or so ago.

Well, just was up tonight, thinking of a million things all at once, and couldn't sleep...just started thinking of him again. Slightly worried, just mainly thankful. I also saw "Big Fish" tonight...that had its effect on me as well.

So...thought I'd kinda just show some pride for my father...share a bit about him here.

This article was in People magazine in 1998 under the section titled "Heroes"...
it was about his efforts to get combat acknowledgement for black soldiers in WW2:



If you can't read the text, it says:

"Just Rewards
Half a century late, black vets receive battlefield honors

In December 1944, Sgt. J. Cameron Wade was driving a truck in an all-black Army unit in France. The U.S. armed forces were still racially segregated, but the Army was taking heavy losses and desperately needed reinforcements at the front. Heeding a call for volunteers from black support units, Wade accepted a reduction in rank in order to fight with 2,220 other African-Americans alongside white infantrymen.

"The white troops were curious about us," recalls Wade, now 74 and a retired businessman living in Texas. "They didn't know what we could do." What the black volunteeers did, of course, was fight bravely and well. Two weeks after joining the 16th Infantry Regiment near the Belgian city of Liege, Wade was leading a squad of black soldiers into a fierce battle one night when a shell exploded beside him. "The next thing I felt was flying through the air," says Wade. He underwent surgery in a field hospital to remove shrapnel from his chest, arm, shoulder and eyelid.

Wade was awarded a Purple Heart, but he and many other of the volunteers never had their ranks restored and received discharge papers that failed to note their combat service. He lobbied to right these wrongs, and on July 23 in a Pentagon ceremony, Wade and four of his comrades in arms were reinstated to their prior ranks and awarded Bronze Stars for their service in battle. Other black veterans became "my family," says Wade, "and my family was being mistreated."


It's sometimes unsettling to see such a proud image of my father, and then to hear his paranoid thoughts as we talk on the phone...talks can be draining, both physically and emotionally, as I attempt to make some...any...headway into his situation. He's already decided that I'm the only trustworthy one at the moment, so often I have to act as the go-between of sorts...sometimes I feel guilty.

Anyway, I've had many of you ask me in orgNotes and emails how my father's situation is doing...so I thought I'd share this here. I appreciate more than you know that many of you still find it within your hearts to ask of his condition, how I'm holding up, how my family is doing... ...If I didn't answer you in length, I apologize...and trust me, I am affected profoundly by the fact that you care enough to ask. *smile*...And Ocean, if you see this...thank you especially. ...Your support and willingness to listen (and relate... *hug*) has been a Godsend, truly...

Off to bed... ...Enjoy life.

Aw...



All strength to you and yer dad.
I know where you are coming from.

A father to be proud of...

Amazing, thanks for sharing Byron

Sometimes it is the past that keeps up moving forward - be proud of your father and keep that in your heart, then the rest will work out.

You are blessed to have good memories - keep them close to your heart.

Byron you have every reason to be proud of him


My thoughts are with you and your father



btw you realy look like him

Hang in there bro.

Take care Byron. I am sure your father is proud of you.

It is a travesty that black soldiers that served in WW2 are treated in this way. All those men who served in the same capacity as other soldiers need to be recognized for the sacrifice they made.
Those servicemen regardless of colour are the ones we owe our freedom to and should be treated in the way they deserve.

I for one would like you to personally say "thankyou" to your father for me.

mdiver said:

Byron...
As I think of the mix of pain and pride you were feeling when you posted this thread...it brings tears to my eyes. You and your family (and especially your father) have SO much to be proud of...I know you must feel like you're dying inside...but, hold on to these things that have made your father's life on this planet important to you...and important to the rest of the world. Just by living he has made this world a better place for all of us and I'm proud of him too.
You know...my dad would have been about the same age as yours and also served in the Army in France during WWII...maybe they smiled at one another
I love you and if you ever need me you know how to find me.

Thank you... Glad I was able to do it this way in addition to individual orgnotes...

My father sent me his medical records thru the mail...he has markings all over them, question marks, parts underlined, some parts just crossed out with a huge "X"...*sigh*...I'll have to go over it all with him on the phone soon...but not today.

He trusts you... That in itself is worth more than words can ever express.

sag10 said:

My thoughts precisely. Continue honoring your father and many blessings will flow.

OdysseyMiles said:

I know his trust in me is based moreso on his belief that I'm unaware of what "others" are doing...that I'm somehow out of the loop. I let him believe that, let him feel that I'm not in constant contact with my brother and sister and mom...if only so that at least one of us can attempt to talk to him in a manner which helps keep him from succumbing completely to what he imagines...

I try to honor him as much as I can, he deserves it.... Not because he's a perfect man who lived a perfect life, lord knows he didn't...but simply because he's my dad. His life would make one helluva movie...he's been thru so much.

mdiver said:

You know...when my father was injured in WW2 (as it described up above), he was in the hospital laying in bed along with other injured soldiers...one day a general came into the hospital to hand out the Purple Hearts for soldiers wounded in combat. My father watched as the general went from bed to bed, giving a speech of how brave and heroic each soldier was, handing them their medal with one hand while shaking the soldier's hand with the other...finishing up the quick cerermony with a salute to the soldier, who of course returned the salute.

When the general came over to my father's bed, he didn't look at my father...instead, he took the Purple Heart, tossed on onto my father's stomach, and kept on walking. When he told me this story, he laughed...and it was a peaceful laugh, one that said he had long ago let go of the anger associated with that act. And then to realize that when he was discharged, he was discharged at a LOWER rank that he deserved, and all record of his battlefield combat was removed from his official records??...

The Bronze Star is given to those soldiers who serve in combat..and he, like literally thousands of other black soldiers, never received theirs...receiving it, even 50 years too late, still meant quite a lot to him. He gave me the medal after the ceremony...I still display it proudly on my bookshelf.
[This message was edited Tue Jul 20 12:33:50 2004 by Byron]

Wow Byron...beautiful...

I'm all choked up I don't know what to say. The love and respect that you have for your father is clear.

I pray for him daily and I hope things will settle down soon.

If there is anything i could ever do, you know I will.

I Love you

Byron said:

Even more so when I hear personal experiences it makes me thankful of their sacrifice. and thanks to you for sharing and your Dad for his sacrifice

God Bless you, Byron. I read this at a time when I'm really becoming close to my dad, for the first time in our lives. It truly hits home.

Your father is an incredible man, and he has my utmost respect and heartfelt thanks for his service to our country. I know its hard, but remember that those paranoid thoughts he expresses to you are the illness speaking. His true heart is strong and brave. To volunteer to fight alongside people who looked down on him, and then to crusade for the rights of his fellow soldiers years later...well, that speaks volumes about him.

truly a hero.

amen.

Byron

He is a remarkable man, Byron.

(Do you know that I have a print-out of this in a box somewhere from when you shared this with me a few years back?... and, not to make a joke of this thread in any way... but, while scrolling through the list of topics, I thought this said "Herpes"... I had something on my monitor that made the "o" look like a "p" and I thought... )

Soo... big hugs for you and your dad!