LAURENS COUNTIANS ON THE VIETNAM WALL

     Inscribed on the black granite panels of the Vietnam Wall are the names of fifteen Laurens Countians.   The typical man was a 26 year old white male, a  Baptist, married and one hundred and sixty one days into his tour.  The average commissioned and non-commissioned officer was a 37 year old white male, a Baptist, married and more than one year into his tour.  The typical private was a 22 year old white male, a Baptist, single and 154 days into his tour.

The oldest Laurens Countian killed in Vietnam was forty four year old Lt. Col, Harlow Gary Clark, Jr.  The youngest was Cpl. David Lee Copeland, some two months short of his 20th birthday.  The first man killed was Sgt. First Class James A. Starley, who was killed in an explosion on Feb. 22, 1965.  The last man killed was PFC George Wayne Baker on June 9, 1970.  Both Specialist Four Bobby Finney and PFC George Baker were killed in action on the 21st day of their tour.

The highest ranking officers killed were Lt. Col. Harlow Gary Clark, Jr., who was killed when his helicopter crashed on March 7, 1966. Lt. Col. William Clyde Stinson, Jr., who was awarded two Silver Star Medals for heroism, was killed in his helicopter while attempting to rescue some of his wounded soldiers.




GEORGE WAYNE BAKER
Panel 09W - Line 31 

(Photo Missing)

Age: 20
Race: Negro
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Apr 30, 1950
Date of Death June 9, 1970
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Married
PFC - E3 - Army - Regular
USARV

His tour began on May 20, 1970
Casualty was on Jun 9, 1970
In GO CONG, SOUTH VIETNAM
NON-HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
DROWNED, SUFFOCATED
Body was recovered.

Burial:
Robinson Chapel Cemetery
Dublin
Laurens County
Georgia, USA

JIMMY BEDGOOD
Panel 55E - Line 39 

Age: 21
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Date of Birth May 20, 1946
Date of Death May 6, 1968
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Married
 SSGT - E6 - Army - Regular

Length of service 3 years
His tour began on Mar 24, 1967
Casualty was on May 6, 1968
In GIA DINH, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
OTHER CAUSES
Body was recovered

Graduate of East Laurens High School

United States Army Staff Sergeant. He died while serving in action in Gia Dinh, South Vietnam.

Burial:
Andersonville National Cemetery
Andersonville (Sumter County)
Sumter County
Georgia, USA
Plot: Section P Site 243

HARLOW GARY CLARK JR
Panel 05E - Line 128 

Age: 44
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Jul 4, 1921
Date of Death, May 7, 1 966
From: SAVANNAH, GA
Religion: METHODIST
Marital Status: Married
LTC - O5 - Army - Regular
1st Cav Div

Length of service 22 years
His tour began on Aug 18, 1965
Casualty was on Mar 7, 1966
In , SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, HELICOPTER - PILOT
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Body was recovered


Family:
 Parents:
  Harlow Gary Clark (1893 - 1964)
  Flora V Clark (1896 - 1978)

 Siblings:
  Clemoth Lamar Clark (1915 - 1984)*
  Pansy Eudora Clark Watts (1919 - 1995)*
  Harlow Gary Clark (1921 - 1966)

Married Mary Y. Clark

Burial:
Jeffersonville Cemetery
Jeffersonville
Twiggs County
Georgia, USA

JAMES EDWARD COOK
Panel 06E - Line 129 

Age: 29
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Sep 4, 1936
Date of Death, April 23, 1966
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Married
SGT - E5 - Army - Regular
101st ABN Div

Length of service 12 years
His tour began on Dec 31, 1965
Casualty was on Apr 23, 1966
In , SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE
Body was recovered

Burial:
Brewton Cemetery
Laurens County
Georgia, USA

JAMES ENNIS COOPER
Panel 56E - Line 37 

Age: 24
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Feb 10, 1944
From: DUBLIN, GA
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Married
Graduated East Laurens High School, 1963
SP4 - E4 - Army - Selective Service
1st Infantry Division

Length of service 1 years
His tour began on Aug 10, 1967
Casualty was on May 8, 1968
In BINH DUONG, SOUTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died of wounds, GROUND CASUALTY
MULTIPLE FRAGMENTATION WOUNDS
Body was recovered

DAVID LEE COPELAND
Panel 17W - Line 22 

Age: 19
Race: Negro
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Nov 29, 1949
Date of Death, October 1, 1969
From: DUDLEY, GA
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Single
CPL - E4 - Army - Regular

Length of service 1 years
His tour began on Apr 4, 1969
Casualty was on Oct 1, 1969
In BA XUGEN, SOUTH VIETNAM
NON-HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
DROWNED, SUFFOCATED
Body was recovered

United States Army Corporal. He was killed in action after he drowned in Ba Xugen, South Vietnam.

Burial:
New Providence Cemetery
Cadwell
Laurens County
Georgia, USA

BOBBY LEE FINNEY
Panel 22E - Line 40 

Age: 21
Race: Negro
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Jul 4, 1945
From: BOSTON, MA
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Single
SP4 - E4 - Army - Regular
173rd Airborne Brigade
Length of service 1 years
His tour began on Jun 2, 1967
Casualty was on Jun 22, 1967
In KONTUM, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE
Body was recovered

Burial:
Laurens Memorial Gardens
East Dublin
Laurens County
Georgia, USA

JAMES LINDER JR
Panel 19W - Line 17  

(Photo Missing)

Age: 21
Race: Negro
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Jun 6, 1948
From: MIAMI, FL
Religion: PROTESTANT
Marital Status: Single
PFC - E3 - Army - Regular
1st Cav Division (AMBL)

Length of service 0 years
His tour began on Jun 22, 1969
Casualty was on Aug 12, 1969
In QUANG TIN, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
MULTIPLE FRAGMENTATION WOUNDS
Body was recovered

EDWARD BYRON LINDSEY
Panel 54W - Line 17 

Age: 23
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Mar 8, 1945
From: DUBLIN, GA
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Single
SP4 - E4 - Army - Selective Service
9th Infantry Division

Length of service 0 years
His tour began on Dec 22, 1967
Casualty was on Jun 29, 1968
In GO CONG, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
MISADVENTURE
Body was recovered

Buried in Memorial Gardens, Dublin, Georgia

J.D.  MILLER
Panel 13W - Line 19

(Photo Missing)

 Age: 29
Race: Negro
Sex: Male
Date of Birth May 28, 1940
Date of Death, Feb. 16, 1970
From: MONTROSE, GA
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Married
SFC - E7 - Army - Regular
101st Airborne Division

Length of service 6 years
His tour began on Jul 17, 1969
In THUA THIEN, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
MULTIPLE FRAGMENTATION WOUNDS
Body was recovered

BILLY (BILLIE)  MIMBS
Panel 23E - Line 82 

Age: 19
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Mar 5, 1948
Date of Death July 18, 1967
From: LOLLIE, GA
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Single
PFC - E3 - Army - Regular
9th Infantry Division

Length of service 1 years
His tour began on Jan 20, 1967
Casualty was on Jul 17, 1967
In LONG AN, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE
Body was recovered

Birth: Mar. 5, 1948
Death: Jul. 17, 1967
Ha Nam, Vietnam

United States Army Private First Class served with Company B, 47th Infantry, Ninth Infantry Division. He was killed in action from small arms fire while serving in South Vietnam.

Burial:
Union Baptist Cemetery
East Dublin
Laurens County
Georgia, USA

FELTON LEE MIMS
Panel 29W - Line 21 

Age: 22
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Oct 14, 1946
Date of Death, Mar 12, 1969
From: DALLAS, TX
Religion: PROTESTANT
Marital Status: Single
RD3 - E4 - Navy - Regular

Length of service 3 years
Casualty was on Mar 12, 1969
In GO CONG, SOUTH VIETNAM
NON-HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
DROWNED, SUFFOCATED
Body was recovered

Birth: Oct. 14, 1946
Death: Mar. 12, 1969


Burial:
Restland Memorial Park
Dallas
Dallas County
Texas, USA
Plot: Field of Honor

EDDIE LEE SMITH
Panel 22W - Line 8 

Age: 26
Race: Negro
Sex: Male
Date of Birth May 29, 1943
Date of Death, June 9, 1969
From: RENTZ, GA
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Married
1LT - O2 - Army - Reserve

Length of service 2 years
His tour began on Dec 4, 1968
Casualty was on Jun 9, 1969
In THUA THIEN, SOUTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died of wounds, GROUND CASUALTY
ARTILLERY, ROCKET, or MORTAR
Body was recovered

JAMES ARTHUR STARLEY
Panel 01E - Line 94 

Age: 39
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Aug 1, 1925
Date of Death, Feb. 22, 1965
From: DUBLIN, GA
Religion: PROTESTANT
Marital Status: Married

FC - E7 - Army - Regular
MACV Advisors

Length of service 14 years
Casualty was on Feb 22, 1965
In , SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY
BOMB EXPLOSION
Body was recovered

Birth: Wilkinson County
Georgia, USA

Family:
 Parents:
  James Harrison Starley (1880 - 1962)
  Mary Carolyn Elizabeth Daniel Starley (1883 - 1962)

 Spouse:
  Anne Lola Starley (1930 - 2010)

 Siblings:
  Pansy Bell Starley Wheeler (1904 - 1980)*
  Ralph Walter Starley (1905 - 1977)*
  Mills Jackson ''M.J.'' Starley (1910 - 1959)*
  Roy Grady Starley (1912 - 1977)*
  Lillian Starley Tarpley (1916 - 2013)*
  Otis H. Starley (1918 - 1971)*
  James Arthur Starley (1925 - 1965)


Burial:
Northview Cemetery
Dublin
Laurens County
Georgia, USA

William CLYDE IKE STINSON, JR. 
Panel 30W - Line 32 

Age: 40
Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Date of Birth Sep 8, 1928
Date of Death May 3, 1969
From: DUBLIN, GA
Religion: BAPTIST
Marital Status: Married
LTC - O5 - Army - Regular
198th Inf Bde

Length of service 18 years
His tour began on Sep 3, 1968
Casualty was on Mar 3, 1969
In , SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, HELICOPTER - NONCREW
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Body was recovered

Burial:
United States Military Academy Post Cemetery
West Point
Orange County
New York, USA

FAREWELL TO THE OLD 988TH

Goodbye to a Part of the Team Just when Lieutenant Colonel David Johnson was asking around for a copy of the company's lineage of military service, the lineage came walking through the door. One by one, grayer and somewhat heavier than they were decades ago, a column of former members of the 988th Supply Company filed in through the door marked "authorized personnel only." Today, on Sunday, September 10, 2006, they were not only authorized, but welcomed as well. They came to be with the current members of their old company, now the "988th Quartermaster Company," on its last day of existence. As they met, they hugged, smiled, and cried just a tear or two. Memories of old friends, good times and doing good things erupted, just like they happened last weekend. They were citizen soldiers, regular men who gave up their weekends and families to serve their country. The foyer of the Army Reserve building on Martin Luther King Drive is filled with plaques of the unit's outstanding service to the Army. As the 988th Service and Supply Company, they were the Most Improved Unit in 1981. They were the Supply Unit of the Year. The 988th was presented a plaque for their outstanding service in providing hurricane relief in El Salvador in 1999. Among the honors on the wall is a Supply Excellence Award for Category C, Level II. The 988th Supply Company was activated in 1957 in Dublin. A descendant of the all black 988th Supply Company in World War II, the 988th was located first in the old Coca Cola Building on South Jefferson Street which later housed the distribution facilities of Royal Crown Cola. The first company commander was Captain John Q. Adams. J.C. Lord was the company's initial first sergeant. Many of those present at the inactivation ceremony joined the company in the 1960s. They were responsible for providing spare parts and supplies to nearly two hundred army units in Georgia and Florida. Among those present at the ceremony were former company commanders, John Griffin and Gene Carr, both of Chester, Georgia. One of the company's most popular commanders was the late Major Paul Wilkes, who served in the reserve in his spare time and taught thousands of Dublin High School kids the elements of chemistry and physics in his day job. Another popular commander of the unit was Bill Roberts of Dublin. Ernie Fultz and some of the others joined the company in January 1966 when the McRae company and other smaller units merged to form a consolidated unit. With a larger force, the company relocated to an armory on Central Drive in East Dublin in 1967. In 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War, the 988th Supply Company was on the list to be activated for duty in Vietnam. There were C-105 aircraft dispatched, ready to ferry the men across the Pacific for the company's first truly hazardous duty. After a careful scrutiny of the cost involved, Army officials decided to keep the 988th in Dublin. Ralph Page, who served in the company from 1974 to 1993, remembered that some of the members helped build roads in Panama during the 1980s. The crowning achievement of the units service came during Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991, when the company was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation for extraordinary meritorious service. The 988th was called to active duty in the first Gulf War in 1991. David Bell remembered that they flew to New York, where they joined other units from across the country. From New York, they flew to England, where they made a short stop before flying on to Saudi Arabia. They arrived in the middle of the night. There was no one there to greet them. "There were no buses. No one had expected us to arrive," Bell said. He fondly remembered the next afternoon turning on the radio and listening to the Atlanta Falcons game. "On the 22nd day of December we headed north into the desert. We spent our Christmas there in the desert. We had plenty of Claxton fruitcake to eat, maybe 200,000 pounds of it," Bell added. During the ceremonies, Billy Harrell rose to speak on behalf of the guys from the past. Harrell spent twenty-six years in the Army Reserve, twenty one of them in the 988th. He thanked Ernie Fultz for "being a daddy to all of us." Harrell proclaimed that if they had enough trenching tools and enough liquid refreshments they could have conquered the world back in the 1960s. Harrell emotionally expressed his pride in being a member of the company. Private Wright, the newest member of the company, opened the ceremonies with a stirring rendition of the "National Anthem." First Sergeant Henry James, the temporary commander of the 988th in the absence of Captain Beverly Rackston, explained the mission of the unit. James read a letter from Captain Rackston, now stationed in Kuwait, which saluted the men and women of the company and stated that "Every soldier must realize that they are part of the team." Lieutenant Colonel David Johnson, commander of the 352nd CSB in Macon, rose to speak next. Colonel Johnson, who drove down from his Marietta home at six o'clock this morning, spoke of his love for command. His love for being a commander is derived from the appreciation he has for his soldiers. Finding it hard to believe, Johnson told the audience that the Army is transforming itself into a more modular expeditionary force to fight terrorism. "This does not end your careers," he told the soldiers. Some of the soldiers will stay in Dublin as a part of the 803rd QM company , based in Opelika, Alabama. Others will be sent to Macon to join Colonel Johnson's command. Still others will join units across South Georgia. Johnson concluded his comments by saying that in his travels around the world, the supply units and the American soldiers are truly appreciated. The guest speaker for the day was Laurens County Sheriff Bill Harrell. Sheriff Harrell thanked the soldiers for their willingness to answer the call. He said that many don't realize the commitments that these soldiers make. In wishing the new and old members of the company well and applauding them for their sacrifices, Harrell concluded by saying that these men sacrifice themselves and their families to help a country realize their freedoms, which we, in this country, too often take for granted. After the colors were officially retired, the ceremony was completed. Someone finally found two stacks of old pictures of the company back in the good old days. Memories began to flow again. For as long as there is a member of the 988th Supply Company, the memories, well, they will always be there. The Army is not leaving Dublin; the 988th Supply Company is being transformed from a company to a platoon, which will from now forward be under the command of the 803rd Quartermaster Company. Many of the company's soldiers are now deployed overseas in support of Operations Endurance and Iraqi Freedom as a part of the team protecting the world from terrorism.

PATRIOTS AND HEROES - The War in Vietnam

As was the case in many wars before, Laurens County sent many of its best young men into the armed services during the Vietnam War.    There is not enough room to list all of our heroes who left their homes and families to serve in the military.

The war in Vietnam was widely unpopular during a decade when the country and the world were flipped upside down, over and over again. Naturally there were many who were afraid to go around the world to fight a war in a country that many of them had never heard of before the war began.    But, Laurens Countians did go.  And many served with valor and honor as they always have. 

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles P. Ragan was one of the first naval advisors sent to Vietnam in 1963. Lt. Ragan was awarded a Bronze Star for heroism by Pres. Lyndon Johnson.   Col. Addison Hogan was awarded the Gallantry Cross with a Silver Star by the South Vietnamese Government for his service in Vietnam in 1963 and 1964.   

Sergeant James A. Starley of Dublin was killed by a bomb in Vietnam on February 22, 1965.  Sgt. Starley was the first Laurens Countian and the 229th American to lose his  life during the war.   In the winter of 1966,  Lt. Col. Harlow G. Clark, Jr. became the first Laurens County officer to be killed in action.  

The citizens of Laurens County erected a sign in front of the Dublin-Laurens Museum honoring those men who served in the armed forces during the war.  The names of those who died were painted in gold.  A dedication ceremony was held on June 30, 1967, in which the families of Bobby Finney and James Cook, the third and fourth men who lost their lives during the war, were special guests.  Sgt. Jimmy Bedgood, winner of four Bronze Stars for bravery, two Purple Hearts, and an Army Commendation medal with a "V,"  was killed in his third tour of duty in 1968.  

Four Laurens County aviators Warrant Officer David L. Green, Jr., Lt. W. T. Holmes, Jr., John E. Best,  and Captain Wilbur A. Darsey were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Air Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal, respectively,  for valor and meritorious service in the early years of the Vietnam War.  

Lt. Col. W. Clyde Stinson, Jr. of Dublin was killed while directing his troops from his helicopter.  Stinson, a 1953 graduate of West Point Military Academy, was awarded two Silver Stars.  At the time, Lt. Col. Stinson was one of the highest ranking officers killed in the Vietnam War.  

Major James F. Wilkes, a Forward Air Controller flying a modified civilian Cessna airplane,  was awarded a Silver Star for directing fighter  aircraft in between friendly and enemy positions and saving the lives of many American soldiers.  Major Wilkes also won two Distinguished Flying Crosses and fifteen Air Medals.  

Staff Sergeant Charles D. Windham, Jr. was awarded two Bronze Stars for his heroism as a Patrol Leader, one of the most dangerous positions in the field.  Chief Warrant Officer Danny Collins was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Air Medals, and a Bronze Star.   

Sgt. Gary Fields, a Green Beret, won several medals for his actions as a helicopter gunner.  Capt. Fred M. Stuckey was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry in action when he piloted his helicopter into an extremely hazardous area under difficult weather conditions and rescued American soldiers who were pinned down under enemy fire.   Lt. Col. Holman Edmond, Jr. in his two tours of duty in Vietnam was awarded 2 Bronze Stars and 17 Air Medals. 

Billy Bryan of Dublin and his fellow M.P.s established Operation Blind Orphan to care for blind and orphaned Vietnamese children.  Four sons and one daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.V. Tipton were serving in the armed forces.  These are only a few of the remarkable stories of Laurens County's heroes during the Vietnam War.

Regardless of anyone's opinion on the validity and the wiseness of the war, we all owe a great debt of gratitude to the men and women of Laurens County and the United States of America for serving our country.  It was not their war, it was their country's war and win, lose or draw, these men and women should be honored, not cursed, shunned and spat upon.

When you see a veteran of the Vietnam War (many are not hard to spot - they wear that designation proudly on their brightly colored black caps) shake their hand and tell them, "Thank you for your service." Then, if you will, and I suggest you do, hug them hard and sincerely say, "Welcome Home!"

As you visit the Moving Vietnam Wall at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center this weekend, watch those who come to visit, those who come to see the names of friends and loved ones, those who salute, those who bow in reverent silence and those who sob. 

The long black wall is not a "Wall of Death."  Moreover, it is a "Wall of Healing."  It is a place where you can come peace with yourself and your feelings about the war, those who fought in it and those who fought against it.  It is place to cry, to remember those you loved and lost.  It is a place to remember, to remember the gifts of love and friendship these heroic friends gave to you and me.

I can not possibly thank all of those who helped, so I won't. In a way, our whole community has.  I will say thank you to Johnny Payne, a Vietnam veteran's veteran, who has been in command of the project from its inception.  If you haven't already been a part of the salute to the more than 58,000 men and women who lost their lives in Vietnam, now is your chance.

Come to the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center on Veterans Blvd. (U.S. Hwy 80 West) on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this week to honor our fallen heroes.   

LLOYD BARRON

“Like Walking Through A Shower of Rain” 

Loyd Barron still remembers that cloudy Tuesday morning seventy years ago today.  It was a day which the generals called D-Day.  It was a sad, yet triumphant, day which changed his life as well as a critically pivotal day which changed the history of the entire world.  Barron still sobs when he thinks about the grueling, horrific minutes which followed after the door of his Higgins Boat dropped open as he jumped into the shallow waters of the English Channel.  

He can never forget the corpses, some with their limbs still twitching and stacked like pulp wood in cords all over the blood-red death trap, designated as Omaha Beach.   The training sergeants had drilled it into his head that the first thing to do was to get off the beach and fast. And so he did, using every bit of his common sense which he learned in the cotton patches of his native Laurens County, Georgia.

Loyd Barron, a son of Harvey and Mattie Dixon Barron, was born on February 11, 1924. Today, at the age of 90, Barron still lives by himself with the help of his daughter and relatives.

As a youngster, Barron, who like many others in the South in the Great Depression moved around a lot, attended country schools in places they once called New Salem, New Bethel and Harmony, finally graduating from Rentz High School in the spring of 1943.

At the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Barron, who is proud of his life working in cotton patches when he wasn’t going to school, was oblivious to what was going on in the outside world. He will quickly tell you that back then, eighteen-year-old kids knew less than a twelve-year-old does today. He knew that was a war going on, but knew very little of the details of what was happening a world away from Rentz, Georgia.

Barron was drafted into the Army in the summer of 1943.  After training at Fort McClellan, Alabama, Loyd was assigned to a Winchester, Virginia National Guard company, Company I of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Army Division.  

“It was like prison, but I tried to make the best of it,” said Barron of his days of basic training in the United States. 

The 29th was sent to England to begin training for amphibious landings.  Everyone knew what they were training for. They just didn’t know when nor where they would be ordered to undertake the largest amphibious landing in the history of warfare.

It was on the fateful, sleepless night of June 5, 1944 when Loyd knew that this time it was not a drill.  This time he was in the war for real.  

“It felt like you would lose everything and that you wouldn’t make it through it,” recalled Barron about the nervous hours before the invasion.    

Barron’s company, assigned to the 3rd Battalion,  was originally assigned to land at H-Hour plus 50 minutes in the Fox Green, Dog Red Sector of Omaha Beach as the second wave of the 116th Infantry hit the left center of the beach.  The first company of the 116th to hit the beach was Company A from Bedford, Virginia.     Nineteen members of the company, known as the “Bedford Boys,” were cut down in the first few minutes. 

Company I, in reserve, was ordered to hit the beach, pass through the 2nd Battalion and take the high ground.  Two assault sections and four boat teams were to move forward in highly overloaded boats.   Most of the men, deftly seasick when they hit the beach, were carrying more than their usual load of ammunition, weapons and equipment. 

“Everyone was quiet and we had a nice ride across the channel in one of those flat bottom boats until I was dumped into the water,” the twenty-year-old Barron remembered. 

Barron recollected the big guns firing over his boat and the door coming down.

“It was so quick, there wasn’t much to do, just to get out,” Barron said.

Barron instinctively abandoned his military training and used his common sense he learned growing up in South Georgia.

“We were supposed to be dressed with our pants legs tied around our legs, but I had been on amphibious training exercises enough to know you didn’t want to go into the water like that.  You would  get about five gallons of water into each pants leg and with your pants full, you couldn’t do much running,” recalled Barron.  

So Private Barron loosened his pant’s legs before they put him in the boat.  Those who didn’t were weighted down and were not able to move quickly once they hit the water. 

When Barron made it to the beach up to an hour behind schedule,  he saw men lying around everywhere. 

“They were piled up on the beach like pulpwood logs,  some of them had limbs still moving and many were blown to pieces,” sobbed Barron.  

Barron continued, “There are some things that you will never forget,” wiping the flow of tears of pain flowing from his uncontrollably squalling eyes.  

“I threw down my rifle and all that mess on me.  I couldn’t run with it.  It was like going through a shower of rain, so remembered Barron about the amount of small arms and artillery fire raining down on him.   I didn’t have any trouble getting another rifle. There were plenty lying around,” recollected Barron.  

“They (The Germans) were putting fire on the beach line.  You had to get through it and when you got through it then it wasn’t so bad except for the snipers in the hills and for a while after the first day.

Although Operation Overlord was an overall success, cloudy conditions, a stiff northwesterly wind  and choppy 5-6 foot waves caused the failure of adequate air support and the loss of 27 of 32 tanks assigned to Omaha Beach.   Roughly 2000 members of the 1st and 29th Divisions were killed or wounded in the initial assault. 

“I give our artillery the credit for stopping our enemy’s artillery,” Barron proclaimed.

Company I landed near the strongest defensive position in its assigned sector defending the draw at Les Moulins.  Under relatively light enemy fire, Barron and his fellow soldiers were able to break through barbed wire impediments.

“Once we were safe on the beach that night,  we were told that we landed 1-3 miles from our assigned landing zone, so we walked down the beach,” recollected Barron. 

“I never saw so many dead and wounded in my life. The tide had come in and washed  bodies on the beach.  Before it could take them out, the bodies were retrieved,” wrote Felix Branham of Company I. 

“When we got back to our designated landing zone later the next morning, I was amazed to see that the army had quickly constructed a harbor and ship facility,” Barron recounted.

  

The company was instructed to move east toward St. Lo.  Once his company arrived at their assigned rendezvous area, they were instructed to wait for replacements and supplies.  

“It was there where I got hit by a piece of shrapnel,” the Purple Heart recipient remembered. 

Barron well remembers, “I had been there long enough to listen to the sound of incoming artillery.  If the sound was the same, it was going to go over you.  If it got louder and louder, you knew it was going to hit you or land pretty close to you.”

On a Sunday, June afternoon about 4:30, D-Day plus 19, the newly appointed Private First Class Barron heard the sound of one of those 88mm German shells getting louder and louder.  

“There was a foxhole, a nice one, probably an enemy one.  I squatted down and tried to jump it, but that was as far as I could get. I couldn’t jump in it.  There was an old tree, about 10 inches wide, that was the only protection I could find.  I scrunched down beside it, not knowing whether or not, I was on the right side of the tree. I knew it was going to hit close by.  And, it did.  It hit just opposite the tree.  A piece of shrapnel hit me in the leg.  By it falling so close to me, it was more of a concussion than anything else,” Barron stated. 

“I didn’t know I was hit until I got up. Had I been further off from it, it would have got me in the body somewhere,” recalled Barron of that fateful Sunday.  

Barron spotted a nearby farm house and dashed off toward it. 

“I made it to the house and jumped into the window and found a bunch of officers  there in some kind of headquarters,” Loyd remembered. 

“They said watch out for those beams,” chuckled Barron, who looked around the room to see many fallen beams.  

Barron was taken to a series of field hospital stations and passed to the rear of the lines at the beach about dark.  

“A nurse came to me and told me she was going to give me a shot to make me sleep.  I told her that I didn’t need a shot in that I was so tired I will be asleep before you pull that needle out,” said Barron, who had not slept, bathed or shaved for three weeks.  After sleeping for nearly a day, Barron woke up to find that his blood had saturated his mattress so much that it was dripping on the ground beneath him. 

Barron stayed at a field hospital near the beach for two days until he was shipped to a hospital in England.  After three operations, Barron learned that since he had been in an English hospital for six months and it was likely he would be in a hospital for at least six more months, he was going home, home!  He was sent first to Staten Island, New York and then to Oklahoma, before his discharge in late 1945.

Loyd Barron returned home to a long career as a mechanic, working for Wynn Pontiac, J.P. Stevens and the VA Hospital before opening his own garage.  Loyd married the late Monnie Mae Scoggins.  They had one child, Judy Barron Meacham, who helps to look after her father today.  

On this 70th anniversary of D-Day, Loyd Barron looks back on the horror of it all knowing that he was a part of history, the day the history of the world began to change for the better.

THE STRUGGLE FOR IWO JIMA

The Gallant Class of  ’43

When teenagers go to the beach, it is supposed to be in the summertime, not the dead of winter.  They are supposed to sun on subtropical beaches, not die on the sands and volcanic lava flows of  north Pacific island shores.  This is the story of two Dublin teenagers whose promising lives ended more than sixty years ago in a conflagration, which will forever be known as the Battle for Iwo Jima.

American military leaders believed that to end the war in the Pacific, it was critical that the Japanese island of Iwo Jima be secured.  Though the capture of the wasteland of the volcanic island was considered inconsequential by some modern historians, at the time it was critical for a base for the launching of the inevitable invasion of the main island of Japan.

Randall Robertson was the youngest son of J.W. Robertson and his wife Nettie Couey Robinson.  Randall was born on June 29, 1926.  Randall’s father was well known about town and was always addressed as “Chief Robertson” during and after his long service as Chief of the Dublin Police Department.    The Robertsons lived in the second block of North Elm Street, a short distance from Calhoun Street School.  Moffett Kendrick remembered that in the neighborhood lived himself, Randall and his older brother Rudolph, Frarie and Derrell Smalley, Burke Combs, Frank Hodges, Charles and George English, and Cecil and David Walters. 

Randall was big for his age,  the biggest boy  in his class.  His large frame made him the ideal football player.  At six feet six inches tall and weighing 250 pounds, Randall was the anchor of the offensive line.  Coach Wally Butts, of the University of Georgia, showed an interest in Randall, but the Dublin lineman wasn’t interested.  There was a war going on, and playing football wasn’t what the gentle giant wanted to do.   The red-headed titan wanted to be a Marine just like his older brother Rudolph.

Randall graduated Dublin High School in May of 1943.  He had been the Vice President of his Senior class and head of the Victory Corps at Dublin High School.  Students in the Victory Corps participated in a variety of activities to promote the war effort.   In those days, students graduated after completion of the eleventh grade.  Though he went to work with the Atlantic Ice Company after graduation, his classmates predicted he would join the Marine Corps like his brother Rudolph had done a year earlier. Rudolph joined the Marines and participate in the horrific battles of Bougainville and Guadalcanal.

The war in the Pacific was drudging toward the epic battles of 1944 and 1945.  Randall and his good friend Bill Shuman turned eighteen in the late spring of 1944.  They had only two choices.  One was to join the armed forces and select their branch of service.  The other was to sit back and be drafted and end up who knows where.  Bill chose the Naval Hospital Corps and was assigned to Jacksonville, Florida.  Randall, following in the footsteps of Rudolph, joined the Marines and headed off to intensive training at Paris Island, South Carolina and Camp Lejune, North Carolina. Bill and Randall both wound up in the Pacific.  They exchanged letters a few times.  Randall’s last letter to Bill came while he was enjoying an all too brief R&R.   After telling his father than he wanted to join the Marines like Rudolph, Chief Robertson instructed Rudolph to “take care of the kid.”  Rudolph nodded and agreed to his assignment. 

Rudolph Robertson, who emerged from his twenty-six month hitch in the Marine Corps with only a few cuts, scrapes and bruises,  was a member  of the 3rd Marine Division.  The 4th Division, to which I believe Randall was attached, launched the main offensive of the invasion of Iwo Jima on the morning of February 19, 1945.  Four days later the American flag was raised atop Mount Suribachi.  But the fighting didn’t stop there.  Rudolph looked for Randall among the pandemonium on Iwo Jima.  He never found him alive.  Following an early morning Marine artillery and Navy ships off shore, the 3rd, 4th and 5th attacked northward on February 25 . All day long the Marines and the entrenched Japanese fighters slugged it out along the  East-West runway of the Central Iwo field and about two-thirds of the North-South runway.

They say it was a sniper that fired the shot that killed Randall.   His height and size, which led to success on football fields, made him an easy target on the dying fields of Iwo Jima.  The shocking news reached Dublin on March 13th.  Randall Robertson, described by his neighborhood friend Moffett Kendrick as a “big, slow-footed jovial kid,” was dead.  He was only eighteen years old.  But then again, wars are frequently started by men and fought by boys.  His body was brought home and laid to rest in Northview Cemetery.  His family never overcame their sorrows. Their dreams weren’t supposed to end this way.

James Boyd Hutchinson was not a standout athlete like Randall.  He was a quiet, shy young man who played the trombone in the high school band.  His classmates voted him the cutest boy in the Class of 1943.  James was born on February 26, 1926 in Dublin.  His father Perry Hutchinson operated a barber shop on South Jefferson Street. His mother Etta kept house at the Hutchinson home at North Franklin Street.  James attended elementary school at Johnson Street School.  

             On March 14, 1945, the 5th Marine Division made it’s final push to drive out enemy soldiers who had been hiding in caves for nearly a month.  The United States flag was formally raised to effectively end the fighting.  But the dying continued.  That same day, just two days before the U.S. Marine Corps officially took control of Iwo Jima, James B. Hutchinson was killed in action,  just three weeks after his 19th birthday. His body was returned home and buried in Northview Cemetery within a short distance of his classmate and fellow Marine, Randall Robertson.

There is an old myth that bad things come in threes.  That maxim nearly came true on Iwo Jima.  Joel Robert Fountain was at the top of the Class of 1943.  He was Senior Class President and an honor graduate.  His classmates voted him the most popular, most studious and most industrious.  Joel enlisted in the United States Navy Medical Corps.  As a Pharmacist’s Mate, Third Class, Fountain was assigned to a Marine unit for the invasion of Iwo Jima.  As the action heated up, the 18 year old Fountain was frantically trying to evacuate the wounded back to the rear of the battle.  As he was carrying a wounded Marine to safety, a Japanese sniper’s bullet struck Joel in the right shoulder.  He fell to the ground and was one of thirteen hundred wounded soldiers who were evacuated by air to safety. 

On this Memorial Day and all days to come, let us pause to remember the gallantry of the teenagers like Randall Robertson and James Hutchinson who sacrificed their promising lives so that we could enjoy the freedoms we enjoy.  This column is dedicated to Randall Robertson, James Hutchinson, Joel Fountain and all the members of the Dublin High School Class of 1943 for their service to our community during times of war and times of peace.

MAJOR GENERAL RENDER BRASWELL

A BORN STORYTELLER 

    They say I was born to tell stories.  I had a long and happy life.  And, I went to a lot of places around the world.  I loved to tell stories to whoever would listen to them.  There are so many stories to tell, but for now, I’ll stick to my own story.  

I was born on October 27, 1907 on the road leading from Adrian to Norristown in Emanuel County, Georgia.  My daddy was  Timothy J. Braswell, an insurance salesman and farmer.  His daddy and my grandpa, John Arthur Braswell, was known to be one of the greatest story tellers around.  He studied and read law, but never became a real lawyer.  

Grandpa Braswell used to tell the story of when he was with the Confederate Army over in South Carolina in the last few months of the Civil War.  He was only 18. He and his fellow soldiers were forced to dig out undigested grains of corn from the horse manure, just to get something to eat.  Starving, freezing  and homesick, my grandfather took a man’s horse and rode home to Emanuel County as fast as he could. 

My mother, Diva Dewberry, used to teach school over in Meriwether County. My momma and daddy split up before I was two. I moved with my mother, a beautiful and smart woman,  to Covington, Georgia.  She was later introduced to and married  Dr. Courtney Brooks, a pharmacist and later, a mayor of Covington.  

When I was only fifteen, I enrolled at the University of Georgia.  I liked science, so I got a degree in Pharmacy at Georgia at a time when most of my contemporaries were just getting out of high school.  I stayed on at Georgia and got another degree, a Bachelor in Science, four years later.  The thought of going to Medical School kept coming into my head.  So, with the help of my stepfather, I went on to Emory where I finished my studies in medicine in 1932.  At 25 years old, I was one of the youngest doctors anywhere around the state.  When I was in school, I joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Alpha Kappa Kappa, a  medical fraternity. 

After finishing my internship at Grady Hospital in Atlanta, I made a career change.  In fact, my decision to join the Army would change my life forever.

As a newly commissioned second lieutenant, I was ordered to report to Fort McPherson, where I was appointed the Chief of Surgery.  I went back to school at The Medical Field Service School in Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania before I was sent overseas to Manila in the Phillippines, where the Army made me Assistant Chief of Surgery in the Sternberg General Hospital.  

Just after Valentine’s Day in 1938, I married Elizabeth Willingham, the most beautiful and wonderful woman, I had ever seen.  We got married in a real big wedding in St. Philip’s Cathedral  in Atlanta.  We had a grand time traveling all across the country on our honeymoon, before we traveled to the Philippines to make our first home.  

Just before the war began in 1941, Elizabeth and I were sent back to the states, where I was assigned as Assistant Surgeon at Walter Reed Hospital.  Soon they chose me to become a member of the American College of Surgeons.  They say I was the youngest doctor ever to receive that  prestigious honor.  

I decided I wanted to serve in the Army Air Corps.  My first assignment came as a Commander and Chief of Surgery at the base at Big Springs, Texas.  In September 1943, I was promoted to a position at the Air Force Cadet Center in San Antonio.  I took some time to attend the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 

Then just as the war was winding down in Europe but heating up in the Pacific, the Air Force sent me to serve as the Command Air Surgeon of the 20th Air Force in Guam.

Our planes flew almost every day or night, bombing the island of Japan.  Tens of thousands of the Japanese people were dying every day when our bombers dropped bombs which exploded and ignited fires that  wiped out many Japanese cities.  Then on August 6, 1945, the course of the war changed forever.  

I was called in to examine the pilot of a B-29 who had just returned from the most important mission of the war.  It may have been the most important military mission of all time.  My patient was Col. Paul Tibetts.  His plane was the Enola Gay.  You know, it was the plane which dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan.  That almost ended the war right there.

I was at the hospital  in Iwo Jima when they brought Col. Tibetts in to see me.  The Air Force was concerned that the rashes on his body may have come from atomic radiation.  I went over every  part of his body.  I finally figured out the rashes were actually scratches from the dirt and grit which were blasted up from the ground and went through the Colonel’s flight suit.

My wife and I returned to the states in May 1946, when I  was assigned as Commander and Chief of Surgery, Keesler Field Hospital in Mississippi. After a little more than a year, we moved to Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, with the same duties as I had at Keesler. 

In 1952, I was assigned as an air surgeon in the Third Air Force.  We enjoyed our stay in London, before once again we came back home, When we returned to the US, I went to work as a surgeon for the Military Air Transport Service. 

My colleagues gave me a great honor when I was recognized for my professional attainment in the field of aviation medicine.  My uniform was filled with all sorts of medals.  I was given a Legion of Merit for my work in Iwo Jima and an oak leaf cluster for my time as Command Surgeon of the  World-wide Military Air Transport Service.  I got Air Force commendations for my surgical work at Maxwell and as the Senior American Medical Officer in the United Kingdom from 1952 to 1954.  They gave me three battle stars for the time I served in the South Pacific during the war. My greatest award came when the Air Force gave me a Distinguished Service Medal.

After I retired from the Air Force as a Major General, I went to work as a Medical Director of General Motors in Atlanta.  I later went into practice with my half-brother, Dr. Courtney Brooks.   

My darling Elizabeth died in 1971.  Elizabeth and I had three fine children, Stephen, Thomas and Elizabeth.  Some three years later, I married Lillian Cox Dawes de  la Fuente in Atlanta. 

I died on May 20, 2001.  They buried my body in Section 5 of Arlington National Cemetery.  The Air Force gave me one grand send off into the skies of heaven.  I can’t remember if I ever wanted to be a lawyer like most of the men story tellers in my family.  But, the government buried me in a crowd of Supreme Court Justices.  They are a right smart bunch of fellows.  Sometimes they get together and talk about the law.  And the stories they tell, well you can’t make up these tales.  Right around me are Chief Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and Warren Burger, and others like Thurgood Marshall and four more Associate Justices. 

You can’t see them from my grave, but not too far from me, a few hundred feet or so,  and just across a small hill out of sight of the Justices and myself are the Kennedy boys;  Joseph, John, Robert and Edward.  Boy, do those Yankees  have a good time when they all get together! I can’t they say what they do.  After all, one of them was my commander in chief for a thousand  days. And what happens in Arlington, stays in Arlington.  

Well, folks this is my story.  Obviously, I couldn’t speak to you directly. So, I asked my first cousin Claudie Braswell Thompson’s grandson, Scott Braswell Thompson, Sr.,  to tell my story. He’s a hopeless storyteller  like me.  He got it from his daddy, Dale, who was another one of us who every time you see one of us Braswells, we’ve got a story or three to tell.