Friday morning there was a ceremony to honor Brad Freeman.
A presentation was made to him by members of present day Easy Company of the 506th of the 101st Airborne who came from Fort Campbell and by members of the 43rd FTS of Columbus Air Force Base. The presentation was of items sent to Mr. Freeman by Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Additionally, there was a presentation on behalf of Congressman Trent Kelly and the VFW. Mr. Freeman is the last original member of Easy Company, the celebrated Band of Brothers of World War II and the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.”
Thanks goes to Nancy Carpenter and Visit Columbus for hosting a barbecue Thursday evening for military personnel and out-of-town guests who had come to participate in the ceremony. It was a grand evening, and I heard a number of out-of-town guests compliment their experience in Columbus, and that is always good to hear.
Honoring Mr. Freeman’s service brought to mind the service of other members of the greatest generation. Of those who stepped forward and so bravely fought for our freedom, how few remain. Though few people’s stories compare with all Mr. Freeman saw and did, they are all lives and stories worth honoring and preserving.
Today being Mother’s Day brings to mind my mother, Ida Billups Ward, who was in college in Virginia when the U.S. entered World War II. She left college, came home to Columbus and went to work at the Columbus Army Airfield base hospital. She also joined the Civil Air Patrol where she flew a Piper Cub and was the first Columbus girl to solo.
I also think of my father, for he was the tail gunner on Smokey Stover Jr., a B-17 bomber that was shot down over Frankfurt, Germany, on May 12, 1944. He was captured and held as a German POW until he was liberated on April 26, 1945.
When Pearl Harbor was bombed, he was living in Washington DC working for the FBI. In his position, he was not subject to being drafted, but in his letter of resignation to Director J. Edger Hoover he wrote, “I resign only to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps where I feel I may better be able to fulfill my duty to my country.”
My father would seldom talk about his wartime experiences, and when I would ask him about them, he always just said: “There were so many stories of heroism that were unknown outside of the POW camps because those stories could not be passed along and were thus lost to time.”
It was not until after he died that I found out his story was one of them.
About a month after my father died, a letter from a member of his crew appeared in the 96th Bomb Group Historical Association newsletter describing what he had done.
On May 12, 1944, B-17s from the 337th Squadron of the 96th Bomb Group based at Snetterton Heath, England, were on a mission to bomb oil refineries in Czechoslovakia. The squadron was attacked by about 50 German fighters near Frankfort, Germany. Smokey Stover Jr. was heavily damaged, with its left wing almost blown away and two engines on fire. Communications had been cut to the tail, and my father did not hear the pilot’s orders to bail out.
He was still firing his 50 cal. guns at a German fighter when he suddenly saw his pilot and co-pilot parachute past his window. He went to his escape hatch to bail out but saw the waist gunner and ball turret gunner lying wounded without parachutes further inside the plane. He crawled into the waist of the out-of-control plane and assisted each of them with their parachutes, helping them out of the aircraft before he bailed out.
My father had once said all the bomber crews were volunteers, even knowing the average crew member’s life expectancy was only six combat missions. However, he never mentioned anything about his last mission, other than he bailed out when he saw the pilot and co-pilot parachute past his window.
The people whose stories of heroism my father always told me were of his friends who never came home. People such as Jessie “Red” Franks, who was the son of Dr. Jessie D. Franks, the minister at First Baptist Church in Columbus. Red was popular, a born leader and had been student body president at Mississippi State. When World War II broke out, he was exempt from the draft because he was a theology student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, but he felt he owed a duty to his country and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He became a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator stationed in North Africa.
The night before a mission in 1943 to bomb important German oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, he wrote his father a letter saying although the B-24 was designed for high altitude bombing “we are going in at 50 feet above our target.” Red was “`glad” to be in a position to help destroy an important Nazi facility and added, “So, Dad, remember that, and the cost, whatever it may be, was not in vain.” He was lost on that mission and never made it home.
We should never forget the sacrifices of those in the “Greatest Generation” and all who have served their country. We should also remember that every veteran’s family has stories that need to be preserved and if we don’t preserve them, they will be forever lost. Brad Freeman is not only a true real life American hero in his own right, but he also represents all the members of the Greatest Generation who served so gallantly but are no longer with us.
We also owe a debt of gratitude to those who serve today who were so outstandingly represented on Friday by Capt. Zac Shutte and the paratroopers of 101st Airborne, Lt. Col. Jason Barlow and Lt. Col. Tony McKee and airmen of the 43rd FTS Columbus Air Force Base, and members of the Mississippi Army National Guard. It was their assistance and presence that made the presentation to Mr. Freeman one of the most meaningful events I have ever been a part of.
Rufus Ward is a local historian.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.