November 2011 Newsletter

Free light dinner at our chapter meeting Wednesday, Nov. 2nd, in Medford!

VFP 156 Chapter President Daniel Guy will host this month’s meeting in his home at 3401 Creek View Dr., Medford, OR 97504. Reach Creek View Drive from North Phoenix Road just south of its intersection with Barnett Road. Our meeting starts at 6:30 pm with a light dinner of soup, salad and bread, courtesy core members. Peace-loving vets and not-vets alike are invited to join us. Our chapter meetings are usually held at 6:30 p.m. of the first Wednesday of each month in the home of one of our members. Please mark your calendars!

VFP 156 presents: The Welcome – A Healing Journey for War Veterans & their Families, at 7 p.m. Friday, November 11, 2011, in Anne Basker Auditorium, 604 NW 6th Street, Grants Pass. This is a free showing, open to the public - invite your friends!

The Welcome is a documentary film about a group of two dozen troubled military vets – some of whom served in Vietnam, some in Afghanistan and Iraq – who came together at a retreat at Buckhorn Springs near Ashland in 2008 to learn how to share their stories, first with one another and then with an audience at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on Memorial Day that year.

Due to the nature of the material discussed in the film, it is not recommended for children under the age of 16 without parental guidance and supervision. Shawn Levy of The Oregonian wrote of this film: “I have never been part of anything remotely as emotional in a movie house anywhere…” The Welcome won the “Best Drama” award at the Atlanta DOCUFEST film festival. If you are a veteran or you love one, you owe it to yourself to attend this free showing.

Bell-ringing encouraged to honor vets and celebrate Armistice Day, 11.11.11

At the Veterans for Peace National Convention in Portland last August our Chapter Vice President Jim Woods heard a member of Minnesota VFP Chapter 27 talk about a project they sponsor each November to encourage churches and individuals to ring bells and chimes for two minutes beginning on November 11th at 11 a.m. This was the minute when peace was declared ending World War I in 1918. Jim thought it would be a great idea for our chapter to do the same, so he has called and written letters to local churches encouraging them to ring their bells or chimes at 11 a.m. on 11.11.11. If you are a member of a church or bell choir, please encourage the ringing of bells with us. You can read more information about Armistice Day and the bell-ringing project below our Member of the Month Profile.

Oscar “Oz” Hawksley, World War II vet, is our Member of the Month

(Editor’s Note: Dr. Oz Hawksley was kind enough to answer the following questions by email and provided more information during my visit to his home in Ashland, where he moved last February from Missouri to be close to his son and his family. All editor’s notes below are in italics. Any errors are the fault of your editor and not of Dr. Hawksley.)

1. Where were you born and raised? Describe your life before the military. I was born in Kingston, NY. As a child I travelled extensively (by Pullman train) in U.S. with my parents. My father was in Vaudeville (singer). When I was about seven years old, my family returned to Kingston, NY, to live (and I began public school). I attended public grade schools, then we moved and I went to junior and senior high school at The Principia Upper School in St. Louis, followed by four years at The Principia College, in Elsah, Ill. (on the Mississippi River, a few miles north of St. Louis, Mo. The Principia is a Christian Science institution.) I majored in Biology, graduated with honors. And I married Janet McHugh (another biologist) on Commencement Day, 1942.

2. When were you inducted into the military? Which service? Describe how and why you went into the military. I was inducted into Army in November 1942 and sent to the newly forming 104th ("Timberwolf") Infantry Division. I was assigned to the 104th’s Recon Troop (mechanized cavalry).

In June 1943 I was sent to a re-assignment center in Salt Lake City, then assigned to an Army Specialized Training (ASTP) unit at Pomona College in California for intensive language training in Spanish. The idea might have been invading Europe from North Africa via Spain, which was logistically nearly impossible. Spain has wide gauge RRs and the rest of Europe is narrow gauge.

At completion of the program, we were re-assigned, this time to the Military Intelligence Training School, Camp Ritchie, Maryland. Three types of units were trained there: IPW (Interrogation Prisoners of War); Order of Battle (these guys had to memorize the entire organization and personnel of the German army); and PI (aerial photo interpretation), to which I was assigned. Each PI team consisted of a captain, a 1st lieutenant, a master sergeant, a staff sergeant (me) and two T-3s.

We were sent to Boston POE and were transported to England aboard British ships. We ended up in London during the height of the "buzz bomb" (V-1 rocket) attacks. There we worked on interpreting current photos, which included some of the "buzz" bomb launching sites in France. On our night shifts (we were three floors above the basement of the building), we took turns keeping watch for buzz bombs by peeking out the blackout curtains from a stair landing. One night I could see six of them headed our way. When they came down, there was terrific blast and more people were probably killed by glass and other flying fragments than anything else. At first, the AA gunners in Hyde Park were shooting some of them down with the 90mm AAs, but they quickly learned it was better to let them go on by to less densely populated areas.

Our official branch of the Service was Military Intelligence Service, but during war time we wore the blue (Infantry) braid. Right after D-Day (6-6-44), the Allies organized the First Allied Airborne Army, composed of the 1st and 6th British Airborne divisions, the 10lst and 82nd U.S Airborne (and later the 17th), a Polish brigade and a French regiment. As far as I know, the French were never involved in an operation. Our 82nd and 101st, of course, saw plenty of action during the invasion, including night-time landings of the jumpers on D minus one.

The First Allied Airborne was only used twice: once in the fiasco at the bridge during the Battle of Arnhem, where the Poles were wiped out and some of the British survivors had to swim the river at night to escape. The 101st landed at Eindhoven in the south of Holland and fought their way north to clear a path for the British armor (which was rather ineffective) and the 82nd landed in the area of Nijmegen and succeeded in saving the highway bridge, but German "frogmen" succeeded in blowing up the railroad bridge.

The final airborne operation was carried out by the British airborne and our 17th AB Division at Wesel the following Spring. MIS personnel were forbidden to go along. A captain from the 17th AB PI team did manage to go, was wounded, lost an arm and was court-martialed.

3. How long were you in the military? Did you consider re-enlisting? What was your rank upon discharge? I had one hash mark -- about 3-plus years. I was ready for civilian life and continuing my education. I was still a staff sergeant at discharge.

4. Were you wounded? Have any residual effects? Metals earned? No Purple Heart and no medals except for the usual campaign bars and marksman stuff. I was "Expert' with the Thompson sub-machine gun, so I got to go on the payroll detail to the bank in Corvallis for the 104th Division payrolls when we returned to the U.S.

5. Can you describe your experiences when you first returned to the U.S.? What lessons to you feel you’ve learned? I had a wife (Janet) waiting for me and there was no rejection of veterans that I ever saw after World War II.

6. After discharge did you go to college or technical school? Pick up any degrees? I used the GI Bill to help to get an MS and Ph.D. at Cornell University in New York state.

7. What have you done for a living in the years since you were in the military? Describe your occupation(s) after discharge and list any accomplishments you'd like to share with your fellow VFP members. (Books written? Awards received?) After completing the MS and part of the Ph.D., I took a teaching job at a state college in Missouri (Central Missouri State College, now the University of Central Missouri), and after a couple years, I got a leave and finished the Ph.D. I then returned to the college and taught life sciences and ecology courses for over 30 years until I retired in 1979. (Editor’s note: Dr. Hawksley was a co-founder of the Missouri Speleological Survey. He got interested in exploring caves because of his passion for canoeing the rivers and waterways of Missouri, along which are located many caves and caverns, which he explored for many decades. The website of the Illinois State Museum has a photo of a large metal cabinet with many shelves, all filled with the bones of small animals, like bats and mice, found by Dr. Hawksley in caves.)

I published in several scientific fields (ornithology, speleology, vertebrate paleontology and recreation. My Ph.D. research, on the arctic tern and a number of other articles were published in national publications. My most popular publication was a guidebook to the canoe-able rivers of the Ozarks, which I donated to the Missouri Department of Conservation. I was told several years ago that they had sold, or distributed, at least 500,000 copies. (Editor’s note: The title of the book is: “Missouri Ozark Waterways: A Detailed Guide to 37 Major Float Streams in the Missouri Ozark Highlands.”)

8. Are you in touch with any of your fellow service members from your time in the military? No, I don't know if any of them are still living. One fellow (Albert Terrice), who was my closest friend, became a rather well-known sculptor. His father-in-law had given him a revolver that he carried in World War I, and he carried it with him sometimes in Europe. Once when we were questioning German prisoners, Al interrogated them in Yiddish! Two other members of our team were fluent in German -- the Finn and the Dane. Among the six men on our team, we spoke nine languages.

9. When and where did you first get involved in public peace activities? What caused you to join Veterans for Peace? My first wife Janet (of 19 years) was a Friend (Quaker). After I moved to Ashland earlier this year, I met Dan Guy at the Ashland Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and he asked if I'd be interested in attending a Veterans for Peace meeting, so I did.

10. Describe your experience as a member of VFP RV Chapter 156. So far, I’ve found it interesting and pleasant, though I am no longer physically able to participate in some things.

11. Do you have any ideas or goals or changes in bylaws that your think the chapter should consider to further the cause of peace or improve our chapter's standing in the community? I think we could stand some younger members who have had more recent experiences with the military.

(Editor’s note: Thank you, Oz Hawksley, for your service to our country and for sharing your story with us.)

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Chapter 27 of Veterans for Peace started encouraging bell-ringing on Armistice Day a number of years ago and now many major churches in that large metropolitan area ring their bells and chimes at 11 a.m. on November 11th each year. Our chapter hopes we can start the tradition here in the Rogue Valley on 11.11.11. Here’s a short piece about Armistice Day that Jim Woods found on the VFP Corvallis Chapter 132’s website and has shared with the churches in his letters:

Armistice Day (also known as Remembrance Day) is on November 11 and commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918.

In the US, President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed November 11 Armistice Day in 1919 saying, "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with lots of pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."

In May 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt declared that the 11th of November of each year would be a legal holiday, "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

It did not become known in the U.S. as Veterans Day until 1954. Most other countries which recognize the date refer to it as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day.

Today it seems fitting, after overreaching with our military might for many years, to emphasize the original intent of the holiday and remember when the guns of World War I went silent and peace settled over Europe once more.

For another look at Armistice Day and a list of VFP events for the holiday, see the VFP national website, www.veteransforpeace.org. (Some of this entry came from Wikipedia.)

(Your VFP 156 newsletter is edited by Allen Hallmark. You can read his blog about his experiences as a soldier suffering through the Vietnam War and as war resister at: http://allenhallmark.blogspot.com/.)