Stephanie Cates: Labor of love reveals greatness in two generations
My maternal grandfather was a U.S. Army captain in World War II. My mother was 2 when he began training maneuvers in Louisiana and 6 when he returned home from the South Pacific. Though he received a Bronze Star for his service, he cheerfully declined to talk about his wartime experiences when Mom was younger and left only vague clues during his later years.
His reticence always piqued Mom’s curiosity. So in 2010, more than two decades after her father died, she set out to piece together a synopsis of his journey with the 1st Cavalry Division.
Her original intent was to create a scrapbook for the family. But once she learned of the humanitarian mission he managed, she wanted to fully document it for history.
Mom’s work culminated in the publishing of her first book, “The Flying Column,” at the age of 76.
The operation for which the book is named was an audacious use of force to rescue prisoners of war in a camp established at the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines.
Troops on foot accompanied tanks, trucks and Jeeps, with the entire column shadowed by Marine pilots flying SBD Dauntless dive bombers. “Our boys” withstood Japanese bullets, mines and mortar fire, arriving in Manila after three days of little to no sleep.
Once the first Sherman tank busted down the prison gates, the 1st Cavalry encountered several thousand adults and children malnourished to the point where every rib was showing. Held captive over three years, the prisoners hardly looked human.
This reflects the most compelling two-sentence “clue” my grandfather uttered, several years before he passed away in 1990: “We liberated some prisoners in Manila.” Forty-five years after the mission, he struggled to keep from weeping as he croaked out the words, “They were in pitiful shape.”
Filling in the details proved daunting. In Army histories, the Flying Column mission merits a page at most. Every brief account Mom read from other 1st Cavalry members echoed the same humble sentiment: “We were just doing our duty.”
In her quest to learn the full story, she and Dad traveled to military museums and talked with WWII vets at air and military vehicle shows. She consumed dozens of historical volumes about the war, citing about 30 in the bibliography.
When the cost to use copyrighted photos and maps was found to be too expensive, she enrolled in art classes so she could do her own illustrations.
Mom kept this all a secret from me and my sister, alluding only to a “project” on which she was working.
I picked up my mail one day last summer and opened a padded envelope addressed to me in her handwriting. Holding the printed paperback volume and reading the dedication inside, I trembled at the significance of her accomplishment.
A lasting treasure for her children and grandchildren, Mom’s labor of love allows us to appreciate the bravery of my grandfather and so many others he led, while getting a glimpse of the selflessness that defined the “Greatest Generation.”
Stephanie Cates is director of marketing and communications at Sterling International Inc. and vice chair of the Spokane County Republican Party.