Veterans Remember....
By: Jeannea Sybesma
Manning Monitor
November 11, 1999

Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, is the holiday that has been observed on November 11 since 1919. The significance of the date is to commemorate the ending of World War I at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918. It is celebrated in Canada, France and Great Britain as well as the United States.

It is a time for us all to reflect back through time and on the present day to remember all our living and fallen heroes who have given their time, sacrifices and lives to make the world a peaceful place to live. These selfless veterans to whom we owe our liberty, we the people of the United States, are able to know what it means to voice our opinions, have the freedom to live independently and live in a democracy.

Now, lets take a step back in time to the year 1942, the year that twenty-one year old Glen Jensen a lifelong Manning resident enlisted in the United States Air Force, "I enlisted because everyone else was going and I had the bug to fly."

Jensen was a B-29 (a long-range bomber) co-pilot of the plane called the City of Omaha. It carried a crew of eleven and flew thirty-two missions from Guam, a small island in the Pacific, where he was stationed for one tour that lasted six months. The twelve to sometimes twenty-two hour long missions (it depended on what part of Japan they went to and how many bombs they carried) involved dropping bombs and photographing by radar prospective targets so that the other reconnaissance missions had an idea where to drop the bombs.

After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 we flew a reconnaissance mission that following night, not knowing that the bomb had been dropped yet, we knew something was up when we flew over and saw the fires and destruction. When we returned to Guam we were interrogated as we were al-ways after a mission, and it was then when we found out that we bombed them," Glen says.

An interesting fact about the crew and plane known as the City of Omaha was that if the Inola Gay (the airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima) could not follow through with it's mission the City of Omaha was scheduled as it's back up.

Jensen retired from the Air Force in 1946 as a first lieutenant and when he was asked what memories he took with him from his time in the service he responded, "The main thing that I have gotten out of my time in the military is the friendship and acquaintances of the people and mostly of the crew, we were a closely knit crew, and when you fly that many hours with people you really get to know them."

Present day, Glen, holding a black and white picture of the crew he spent so much time with and the City of Omaha, he remembers fondly and so very vividly every name on the crew and you can see in his eyes how special and meaningful every person meant to him. Glen still keeps in touch with the remaining members of the crew, attending reunions and corresponding with others and also with the air commander who still to this day keeps everyone informed.

Now it's time to move on to the year 1951, the height of the Korean War, a war that the United States and nineteen other nations fought in. For Merlin Hass it was time to heed the call to join the United States Marine Corps and serve his country.

Merlin was stationed in San Diego, California where he was attached to the USS Iowa battleship along with 2,700 sailors.

Merlin's job was mostly guard duty. The Iowa was sent to Korea to launch the one and a half ton bombs day and night. Merlin was in Korea for about a year and a half.

Though Merlin was never technically on Korean land, he told a story about his Captain who was also a helicopter pilot, Captain Camel. An Air Force plane went down behind enemy lines and they wanted to know who would take it the captain or the lieutenant. Captain Camel took the mission without hesitation. He took a .45 pistol and the helicopter behind enemy lines in the fog and at night and rescued the pilot.

"He was an amazing man," Merlin commented, "He once told me when I was a private first class, 'PFC you do what I tell you and if I'm not around to tell you, you do what you think and feel you should do and I'll put stripes on your shoulder. "'

Merlin thinks everyone should do eighteen months in the military, Merlin said, "It makes a better person out of you and kids nowadays can really benefit from the time they spend serving this country. These days so many young people don't have the patriotic pride of the generations before them. Serving our country can really make you aware of how important the military is to the United States and the pride you can achieve in serving your country."

One of the most memorable experiences for Merlin while in the military happened not during war-time but when he was transferred to the USS Missouri and went through the Panama Canal.

"It was a beautiful sight and it was really interesting to see, only about five to six inches on each side of the ship," commented Merlin. It took the ship, which is approximately a block wide by three blocks long, about three days to pass through the canal.

Now on to the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1959 to 1975. It was a war that to some of the soldiers who were over there didn't make a whole lot of sense. For twenty year old, Tom Hey it was the draft that lured him, not by choice, to join the United States Army on January 2, 1968.

He served ten months over in Vietnam in the infantry as a radio operator. With only 10 days left in the field before heading off to some much needed RNR to Sydney, Australia and then on to America, home. Tom had the ill fortune of being injured by a 'booby trap' and losing his right leg from mid thigh down.

Though there are many aspects of the Vietnam War that Tom still contemplates to this very day, he stated, "I am strongly in favor of going over and helping out the people of Vietnam. I would very much like to see full diplomatic relations. I would like to see whatever we can do to help these people." He would like to go back to Vietnam someday he said. In a split second he would go with no hesitation.

When asked about a particular story that stood out in his mind he smiles and replied, "I have a Christmas story that I can honestly say was the first time and probably the only time in my life that I found out what the true meaning of Christmas was really about. Without Vietnam I'm not sure I would still understand the meaning."

In Vietnam no one knew what day it was, you kept a calendar of only how many days you had left until you were out. It was somewhere around December 22, we thought, and Tom's platoon got a call, after only being out in the field for two or three days, to come back into base camp, "Which took me totally by surprise," Tom noted, you never were called back to camp that soon and especially at two in the afternoon.

Not knowing that it was Christmas Eve and that a cease-fire was in effect, Tom asked someone what day it was, no one knew for sure.

"We were aware of the fact that it was the Christmas season but there were no decorations, no shopping and no one from the Salvation Army on the corner ringing their bells.

Because they were in infantry they didn't have a chance to purchase gifts to exchange. A member of Tom's platoon handed an-other man his care package from home he had received which was marked 'Do Not Open Until Christmas.' and said "Merry Christmas" and before you knew it, they all exchanged their unopened care packages from home.

"We were like family, each other is all we had," Tom stated.

They also did something that Christmas Eve night that was unheard of in Vietnam and that was to build a campfire. With a smirk on his face Tom stated "It was a very small fire, but it was a fire."

They spent the evening reminiscing about Christmas from years past at home, reading the Christmas story out of the Bible and singing Christmas Carols.

"When you start singing a Christmas Carol like Silent Night, and there is no such thing as a Silent Night during wartime, and then when you sing the words Peace On Earth Good Will To Men, and you can hear helicopters and gun shots off in the distance, that is a very empty feeling. There were more tears shed that night than you can imagine." Tom stated.

After Tom was wounded he was flown home to California from Japan on a stretcher. When the plane was ready to land in the wee hours of the morning there were no welcome banners, nobody to greet them, and no cheers. The only welcome was the pilot on the radio saying, "On behalf of the California Air National Guard we wanted to thank you for your sacrifices," and as they touched the ground the pilot said, "Welcome home."

Although these wars were as different as the accounts of these three men, it is the personal stories that make them so unforgettable to us all. We should stop for a moment and remember these individuals for the many gracious sacrifices our veteran's have made for you and I.