God Bless America & Those Who Protect Our Shores

God Bless America Lyrics
by Irving Berlin

God bless America,
Land that I love,
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above;

From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.



Ernest T. Pederson - WWII



Today is Veterans' Day - it is also my brother's birthday.  Thank you to all the veterans' who have served our country including my brother who served in Viet Nam.  I have family who have served in every war on US soil, Viet Nam, and the European Theatre.

The Internet has been a big help to me in my journey to find out where I came from.  Today, I found the following tidbit about my great grandfather when he served in the Civil War:

Civil War Veteran, "Rollin Joseph Hall enlisted October 10, 1861 at Pottsdam to serve 3 years; mustered in as sergeant, Company E, October 30, 1861; promoted to 1st Sergeant, no date; transferred to Company D, June 11, 1863; wounded in action June 1, 1864 at Cold Harbor, VA; transferred to Company K September 1, 1864; mustered out with company January 7, 1865 at Albany, NY."  I have misplaced my geneology papers or I would  introduce you to the rest of my family of whom I am very proud that they chose to serve to keep us safe..

WW II Veteran, Sergeant Ernest T. Pederson (my father),   served in the Engineers Service and Combat Battalion, enlisting January 1943.  My mother kept a scrapbook of the war and  I've spent some time in the past few days reading the newspaper articles, looking at photos, and reading cards.  I've been sickened and shocked at the articles as well as found warmth gazing at a soldier feeding a baby in France.

What a horrific war this was.  Patriotism was at it's height and many sons from the same family enlisted (One family in the town I grew up in, had 8 sons enlist!).  Little did they know what they were really in for.  Many men suffered from frostbite and trench-foot which was almost as dangerous as the enemy.  A clean-up might be building a fire to heat water and stripping down next to a snow bank.  I look at those photos and I admire the perserverance of these men.  

My father wrote the following letter to my grandmother from the front lines in Europe.  It gives some insight about army life.

Somewhere in Belgium

November 2, 1944

Dear Mom,

Well, I'm finally getting to find time to get a few lines off to you and let you know I am fine and hope you are the same.

Just now a flying bomb went over.  We really watch them because one never knows when and where they will come down.  We could hear this one go off.  It was quite a ways off.  Well, Mom, we really have been on the go.  I have been in Holland too but am back in Belgium now.  The people seem pretty friendly but you sure have to watch your step.  We carry our rifles with us wherever we go.  I have been on the fighting lines and it reminds me of the first day of duck hunting back home.  I am on a machine gun now.  I have been sitting in a fox hole for some time.

Boy I surely wish this old war would come to an end because I get so homesick for you.  Mom, will you send me all the cigarettes you can get?

We will be living in a school building so it makes it much nicer than sleeping out on the ground 'cause it sure gets cold.

Sure wish I was home and I am looking forward to that day.  Your Son, Ernie

My father fought in most of the major battles of the war.  There is a photo that I am looking at of the Army Engineers crossing the Roer River.  On the boat is a dead comrade.  I wonder if my father was on that boat because in several of his letters he talks about crossing the Roer River as well as the Rhine River.  Some of the articles talk about the smell of death.  Our soldiers many of whom were kind loving men held guns prepared to shoot the enemy.   My father was one of those...kill or be killed.  He started his tour in Iceland, then arrived in France in September 1944.  His unit(s) were constantly on the move from France to Belgium, to Holland, to Italy.  As I read through the scrapbook and my father's letters to my mother, I could sense what he was going through.  The horror was "across the pond" as the soldiers called it but as the war ended, these warm loving guys who left their homes came back with scars, wounds (both physical and mental) without much help.  Here is a poem written by Frances Angermayer that brought tears to my eyes:

CONVERSION

Look God, I have never spoken to you--

    But now--I want to say "how do you do."

You see, God they told me you didn't exist--

    And like a fool--I believed all this.

Last night from a shell hole I saw your sky--

    I figured right now they had told me a lie.

Had I taken time to see the things you made,

    I'd known they weren't calling a spade a spade.

I wonder, God, if you'd shake my hand,

    Somehow--I feel that you will understand.

Funny--I had to come to this hellish place,

    Before I had the time to see your face.

Well, I guess there isn't much more to say,

    But, I'm sure glad; God I met you today.

I guess the "zero hour" will soon be here,

    But I'm not afraid since I know you're here.

The signal! --Well, God --I'll have to go.

    I like you lots--this I want you to know--

Look, now--this will be a horrible fight--

    Who knows--I may come to your house tonight--

Though I wasn't friendly with you before,

    I wonder, God--if you'd wait at your door--

Look--I'm crying!  Me!--Shedding tears!--

    I wish I'd known you these many years--

Well, I will have to go now, God--Good-bye.

    Strange--Since I met you--I'm not afraid to die.

I wonder what I would be like if I had served in a major war?  I think I did serve in my own war of Childhood Trauma and Adult Abuse.  I was born this innocent baby girl who grew into a young woman and had so much of my life taken from me.  My dad was this happy young man who faced his own trauma in losing his father at such a young age then fighting in the midst of blood and gore.  God, I pray that you will have a nice place for us where there is peace, forgiveness and love.  We live in this fallen world where so many hearts are damaged.  Heaven?  Oh what a place that will be...

In signing off, I quote Psalm 139:23-24  "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting."

God bless you all and keep you safe!