Wednesday, May 10, 1995 - The Michigan Daily - 5
by matt Wln ot
-.s OANormB QUuriAI
unty roads ... "Don't shed any
The warm wind whips in through the rolled3tear for Michigan,
wn car window; ahead lies only the endless we don't want your
bon of the open road. J tears. Don't feel
Summer is the time to travel, the time to leave
hind the constant familiarity of home and rest sorry for Michigan,
r eyes on new sights. It's also time to leave
hind the predictability of acollege town and head wedyour
to the small towns and suburbs to be reminded sorrow. Michigan will
w the rest of America lives.- -
Someone once said that driving on an interstate - frbe back."
the best way to go someplace without seeing
ything. I've made the trip from Ann Arbor to - interim
hicagomore times thanIcancount,butIneversaw
ything particularly interestinguntilrecently,when coach Loyd Carr at the
friend and I took an extended (and somewhat - , 5c/ 75 OF A/V EXfEtDfD press conference announcing
intended) detour into New Buffalo, Michigan.-/ HE odll OFs/4Nsgrna/lo
e eschewed our original plan of going to Wendy's FJ5 / )O Of ///OF A VF/ s -7 f/ (IM //1/ayMeller'sresgnation
favor of stopping at Oink's,obviously the town's
auet that Wedn on Veteran's perspectives on World War II
th no one parked in the lot spaces marked with
-shapedsignscontainingpunsrangingfrom"Play The following is a collection of memories, "I was at an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) town, five of us shared three bottles.I fainted when
" to "Top Hog." Across the street the town hall predictions andperspectiveson the war, adjustment meeting when a long time friend was really shook I found out that it was from865, and we had been
ad its obligatory, and unexplained, iron cannon to civilian life and other matters unique to veterans up. I sat with him afterwards and he had been throwing most of it away. In New York, four year
uarding the door. It could have been 1955 as much from interviews conducted by Editorial Page Editor crying. The media has brought back a lot of old champagne already cost $75."
1995; like many small towns, New Buffalo looks Joel Knutson. Many thanks are due to those who painful memories for him. There are still things -Archie Defer, 84th Division
les away from cyberspace - a small time warp shared their stories with us. that will trigger events for me that I don't want to
part from the speeding cars and fast food dives on remember. I won't judge a man for crying for at "We used a receiver to get incoming news. We
e interstate. On the way back tothe freeway, we "May 12 is my V.E. Day. We were liberated times I'll cry as much as they do." bartered for parts with older German guards with
assed alarge store selling lawnornaments:judging from our P.O.W. camp in Barth near the Baltic by - Adam Paul Banner, Third Army 447 cigarettes and chocolate from our Red Cross parcel.
im their stock, white stone incarnations of the the Russians ... When they arrived, the closest I Ordinance Group, Washtenaw County Soldier's TheBritishwereexcellentinradiocommunications."
irgin Mary were their most popular selections. came to losing my life was when a drunken Cosack Relief Commission - Ralph Miller
Last summer found me in Kalona, Iowa, (Russian soldier) was ordering me to open the
ulation 3,400. Many evenings I took a bicycle gates to the camp with a big pistol by my nose. He "After V.E. Day, people were eager to enroll "I trained a bunch of corps men as medics that
'de around town, my camera around my neck. could've shot my head off - I'm glad he didn't." for duty in the south pacific.. We were like 'Hurry were sent over to the pacific. All 50 of them were
ome of the shots are the standard-issue country - Ralph Miller, P.O.W. up and let's get this thing over with so we can all killed. When I found out, I cried like a baby.
acation pictures: a golden sunset over a green 459th Bombing Group, 15th Air Force go home." Medics would always be situated on the corners
orfield, a pair of goats who stared at me with - Gregory Katopodis, 79th General Hospital of battle, so you knew that a lot of men would have
bereyes,ateamofhorsespulling acart piledhigh "Most of the reactions I get from the war are to be killed first before they were killed."
ith hay.Yet for the most part Iwent looking for the long-range perspectivesonhow things havechanged "I went into a barrack in the forced labor camp - Mary McQuinn
thersideofcountry life: arow ofbroken-down cars since then. There is no question that had we not won after our liberation where I saw living skeletons.
n blocks in front of a cornfield, a Pepsi machine we wouldhave been underaxis powers.Muchof my There were many that were dead in the hallways "I was 24 when I was drafted. I didn't have the
"Served in Cans!") surroundedby the rusting parts reflections are on what that would be like. For a and in their bunks...I saw what the Germans did to guts to go, and I still have a scar on my nose from
ldfarmmachinery,therowofforlornmailboxes soldier, it was a very very hard fought war. There those people like in Auschwitz. What I see today when they pulled me in." -Archie Defer
ide the trailer park. wereno overwhelming victories; in the end, we on the news is as miserable as what I saw then...I
One day when I was idly riding around I came barely won." can't understand why people want to hurt other "People have asked me how you can listen to
pon the Kalona Sales Barn and the monthly horse - David Dawson, 1st Ranger people anymore." - Ralph Miller a lieutenant who just orders you to fight. That's
uction. I went inside to find myself surrounded by Batallion and 751st Tank Batallion not it at al.You do the things you did because of
ountry people. The old men sat with wisened "When you come home, you're uncomfortable patriotism. It wasn't superficial or flag-waving. It
ands and faces, wearing grubby feed store caps "In World War II, wherever the enemy was, we talking about blood and guts to those who lack the was not letting the people next to you down and
nd spitting their chew into styrofoam cups. The wouldfightthem.Ican'tseenotgoingaftersomeone proper perspective. Everything seemed doint what was necessary. The minute the U.S.
hildren wore cowboy boots and looked eagerly at when they are shooting at you." anticlimactic after the war, like college and 'why got in the war, everyone did everything possible
e list to see the history of the next horse. The - Everett Houk, Navy submarines should I study?' Becoming a civilian again after with a strong sense of national spirit and unity that
orses themselves were slapped into a dirt-floored spending four years in continual combat - it hasn't existed since." - David Dawson
gat the center of the room, their eyes rolling as "I was stationed at Pearl Harbor, and when the seemed trivial." - David Dawson
oung girl with long brown hair and a plaid shirt news came over the radio all of the patients jumped "Each one of us gets angry when we go to
maneuvered them skillfully in a circle as the outofbedin the middle ofthe night banging on pots "We we heard the news we got some funerals and no one is there, or when there's no
auctioneer pattered on at an amazing speed. and pans. It was a noisy night, and no one slept champagne by blowing the door of a false cellar, flags present at cemetaries on Memorial Day, or
Nine miles away lies Riverside, Iowa, the after that." where we found the liquor. Everytime we when there's no flag flying in front of City Hall."
purported "future birthplace of Captain James T. -Mary McQuillin, lieutenant Nurse Corps stoppedsomewhere, we drank. hen we reached a -Adam Paul Banner
Kirk." Downtown businesses sit abandoned, with
an old gas station slowly rotting away next to the L tr
highway. The white towers of the Riverside Feed
Co.cast aperanentshadowonthestreets.Stopping The chicken or the egg -government is too powerful
for gas, I li sten to a greasy man in atrucker's cap talk
to his children, their dirty hands reaching out for the To the Daily: cause and effect. Many militia groups have been right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to
dy on the shelves. In the bank lobby stands th It's no surprise tome thatJoelKnutson (Editor's arming themselves because they fear that one day protect themselves against tyranny in government."
wn pride: a commissioned statue of Captain Note, 5/3/95) can't make "the irrational connection the government will become their enemy, and Does that statement legitimize the militias? You
Kirk. In the end, the statue epitomizes the town; b c ," they must defend themselves and the Constitution. should decide for yourself.
carved out of pine wood ndiand.theappycal e he gets his information from a liberally biased Look at what the government has been doing. We Millions of people in this country are afraid of
Wlooks like cigarp store Indian. ner-city media, of which he is a part. The media would lose liberties every day. Did the government's government because it has too much control. What
it's easy to forget that the majority of thenaetnme, have you believe that any person who values policies cause the militia groups, or did the militia is President Clinton's solution? More control! If
poor live industy small towns likeRiverside, living liberty and freedom is racist, confused, paranoid, groups cause the government's policies? Which you really want to disarm the militias, take away
narrow vesy f quiet de eri." hymg and a danger to civilization. I'm not saying that the came first, the chicken or the egg? It's not an easy their fears; don't increase them.
havechildren, andeke outanexistence workingthe aforementioned "irrational connection" is, in fact, question, but history might give you the answer. Steve Schaller
land, punching the cash registers at Wal-Mart, or rational. I am saying that it behooves every The framers of the Constitution knew firsthand Rackham student
anpun hing the s gstes at theaAmo irgst, individual to inform themselves instead of being the evils of a tyrannical government. What scares
ihoing the pumps at the Amoco. Their ghosts ar "informed" by typical media outlets such as the me is how our Congressmen are second-guessing
inywhere on the dusty roads, the old tractors their intentions. Thomas Jefferson once said, "No
mainstreets of Middle America, and I will not long The real "paradox of anti-government hatred" free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
forget them, of which Mr. Knutson speaks is a question of The strongest reason for the people to retain their