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| George Buster Singleton |
(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator
George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere
in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Price was paid for our freedom”
was originally published in the June 2, 1988 edition of The Monroe Journal in
Monroeville, Ala.)
As most of you know, Memorial Day has been set aside by our
Congress to honor and pay tribute to the many, many thousands who gave their
lives in the service of our country.
I have often wondered if it was possible to think back and
look through time and check the records for the past 200 or so years and pick
out the one individual who gave more toward preserving our freedom than anyone
else. Then, by the same token, I have wondered who might have given just as
much and never been remembered at all. This, to me, is the most heartbreaking.
Most often if we picked out the best-known, it would be some
great general of an outstanding series of battles or the great commander of
some great invasion. This is good and true. They deserve all the credit that is
given them, but there were thousands who never received more than a telegram
from the Department of War telling someone of their passing. And sometimes it
was many years before this word was forthcoming.
Few of you given any thought to the little guy, or the
least-known, who sleeps somewhere in one of the many national cemeteries
throughout the world, or who was reported missing in action and was never heard
from again. Many, many times these individuals were the ones who had less to
fight for – material things, that is – than most anyone else.
I remember quite well the circumstances of the second World
War. I can recall that dreadful Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, when President Roosevelt
declared war on the Japanese empire. I was not old enough for the draft, but I
remember many young men dropping out of school, many in their senior year, to
go forth and do battle with the enemy. I remember this one young man who didn’t
have a family. He had always lived with distant relatives so that he would be
near a school that he could attend. He dropped out of his senior year and enlisted
in the Army Air Force as a tail gunner on a B-25 bomber.
During the first mission that he made over Nazi Germany, the
bomber that he was in was shot down, never to be heard from again. The only
word that was ever received was “missing in action.”
Another member of the same high school class was flying over
Burma. The C-47 disappeared, never to be heard from again. Ten years later, the
U.S. government finally declared him to be dead. During the 10 years, word came
to the family that he had been seen somewhere in Burma in a POW camp. But it
was never confirmed.
Four other members of the same class trained for just a few
weeks. Their first action was the Normandy invasion. As they stepped from the
landing crafts on the edge of the dry land, they were killed. Two more were
killed when the ship that they were serving on was hit by a German U-boat.
I do not mean to insinuate that the above-mentioned
individuals gave any more than the other thousands who paid the supreme price
with their lives. But there were so many who maybe didn’t seem to get the
chance to prove themselves; maybe a little more time, a little more experience,
would have made all the difference.
Throughout the years and during all the wars, we have had
the forgotten ones. This is the way that it has always been. I don’t think we
as Americans intend to omit anyone from the rolls of honor. But as time goes
on, the thoughts of those who fell almost unnoticed tend to become further and
further in the spans of time.
I know, too, that we cannot dwell on the past all the time.
We have to face the future and the world as a whole. We cannot hide within our
past and submerge ourselves with pity.
We have got to remember that our freedom has not been given
to us free. It has been paid for with a price. And most times it was paid for
by the ones who could afford to pay for it with the least.
So the next time that you feel like that all has gone wrong
and you wish that you could go to the ends of the earth, stop and remember that
only here, in this America, my America, all things are possible.
Regardless how much we think that we have got it bad, we are
always ahead of the game, because there were those who didn’t get the chance or
the time to think about it. Their date with destiny was at hand, and they were
not late for their appointment.
(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of
Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A
longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo
County, graduated from Sweet Water High School, served in the Korean War, moved
to Monroe County in 1961 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville
National Guard unit from 1964 to 1987. For years, Singleton’s column “Somewhere
in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of
articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. He is
buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of
Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm
records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns
are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part
of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)
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