COMING
HOME
the concluding installment of
by John Bascom
On April 30, 1945 Hitler committed
suicide in Berlin. On May 7, all of
Germany formally surrendered. The war in
Europe was over.
In the Pacific, however, war continued
to rage. U.S. forces had successfully
prosecuted their island-hopping campaign, moving closer and closer to the
Japanese homeland. By mid-1945, the
Philippines had been retaken, and the island of Okinawa, the closest to Japan
itself, had been seized. The Japanese
air and naval forces had largely been destroyed. Intense daily bombing had devastated Tokyo and
other key industrial cities and ports. Plans
were underway for a massive land invasion of Japan. Estimates called for a ten-million-man
invasion force, with over a million American casualties expected. Word quickly spread through Allied forces in
Italy that they would soon be sent to the Pacific, a massive logistical
undertaking.
In Italy, the main business was maintaining
order. Power abhors a vacuum, and
partisan factions had begun fighting among themselves. In the west, France had moved to claim
long-disputed border territory and was threatening to enter Italy. It was up to the Americans to assure a
peaceful and orderly transition to civilian rule.
Generals visited troops, made
speeches and decorated soldiers. Dad was
awarded the Good Conduct Medal there. He
received medals and ribbons for his role in the Arno, North Apennines and Po
Valley campaigns. In early August, news
came of the atomic bombing and surrender of Japan. There would be no redeployment to the
Pacific.
The troops moved south to await
transport back home. There were nearly a
million Allied soldiers in Italy, and marshalling them for deployment home was
a gigantic logistical task. My father at
some point visited Rome and Pompei on leave as a tourist while awaiting his
turn. There, he enjoyed the scenes and
collected souvenirs. He was promoted to
Pfc, the highest rank he would attain.
On October 22nd, he boarded ship in Naples, disembarking at
Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia on November 3rd.
He arrived back in St. Louis
around November 9, 1945 and was formally and finally honorably discharged from
service with character and efficiency ratings of excellent. He had weighed 153 pounds when he was
inducted; he was down to 138 for his exit physical. He had experienced endless months in the
field, been wounded twice by artillery shells, and was hospitalized for
hepatitis. He had watched his best
friend die a gruesome death. Dad endured
up to a month at a time in wet foxholes, dodged machinegun fire and hand
grenades, and survived a mano-a-mano, eye to eye shootout at the war’s
very end. But now he was home.
My earliest memory is of my father
coming home, and I truly recall the event as clearly today as I experienced it at the
time. I was just beyond two years old,
only twenty-seven months. I’ve been told
the family had been buzzing about his return for weeks, but I remember none of
that, though excitement surely rippled through
my grandparents' flat in South St. Louis.
I recall my father climbing the long steps, smiling, his uniform
starched and pressed, my mother giddy
with arms-outstretched in anticipation.
At the top of the stairs they embraced and kissed. And, an uncomprehending toddler, I remember
wondering why in the world she was kissing the mailman, the only other
uniformed man I had ever seen at our house.
Then I slipped away and hid under the massive buffet table that stood
along the dining room wall, peering out warily at the raucous scene that was
unfolding.
Memories of my father are scant in
the few years following his return. He
found work in Albany, New York, but not sure that it would work out for the
family, we remained at the St. Louis flat of my grandparents while he commuted
on weekends. For me, he was still not a
part of my daily life. About eighteen
months later, he found a good job in Minneapolis, and our entire family moved
into a small frame house there. I was
four years old. It was the first
traditional nuclear family life I had experienced.
Dad settled into a typical
routine. He worked hard at his job and
did well. Ours was the classic suburban
life of school, church, friends and back yard barbecues. My father experienced some drinking problems,
but quickly got them under control. I
never recall him taking a single drink.
I experienced him as aloof and detached at times. Later, he displayed a few uncharacteristic
angry outbursts over minor events. José Narosky, the Argentine author, famously
said, “In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.” It must be true. Did the traumas of the Apennines warn him not
to get too close, or cause him to burst forth in those occasional fits of
barely constrained anger? I’ve often
wondered.
Whatever his demons, they
eventually faded. His life can fairly be
described as long, productive, and successful.
He enjoyed a good career, rising in the ranks to management levels in a
major corporation. His marriage was
lifelong and from all indications happy.
His friends liked and respected him.
He was loved by his wife and children.
I never heard of him experiencing nightmares or flashbacks. He occasionally talked about the little
things: seeing Rome, shooting the cow, the time his buddies dared him to swim
across a lake, and he came head to head with a huge turtle. But he never spoke about combat. My mother and he must have talked, late at
night, the children in bed, the house quiet and the lights low. The death of Woody, the killing of the German
boy. It was she who, much later,
secretly revealed these events to my sister and me. He and I made our peace in the end. Dad died quietly of cancer in July, 1985,
seventy-five years of age.
It is over twenty years now that I
vacationed in Tuscany, marveling at the rolling hills, the little walled
medieval villages, Chianti vines heavy with grapes in the fall, my wife and I
stopping to pick one, bursting with juice, as sweet as any candy. Sipping Brunello Reserve at the hilltop
winery in Montalcino. Then, I knew
nothing of the details I have shared here. Now, having learned the things I have in
writing this, I resolve to return. I
will visit the wartime places of my father, I tell myself. This time, I will go to Castel Fiorentino,
traveling through Florence, not pausing there as I did on my first visit. I will go to Barbarino, to the places of the
battles, to Bruscoli, Livergnano, where my father advanced inch by inch
and house by house in the face of withering fire and grenades raining down from
the clifftops, then to the Futa Pass. I
will travel to Monte Bastione and contemplate what happened there. I will follow in my father’s footsteps, I
say to myself, climbing the pathways the mules trod up the side of Mount
Belmonte, pausing on the summits to hear the wind moving through the treetops
as had my father. I will perhaps, quite
unknowingly, stand on the spot where Woody Woodruff breathed his last. And I will turn my ear to the sacred ground
and hear the whispers of the souls of Americans who have never left that place. These
are the things I say to myself. As I
write this, I am a seventy-six-year-old, burnt out and used up old man. Still, these things I say and resolve, and I
will do it all.
What will the souls on Mount
Belmonte tell me? Will they say that I
would have performed as well, been as brave, suffered the terrors with the same
fortitude as did my father? I think I
would not, but really, I don’t know.
But one thing I am certain those
souls will tell me is that wars are not fought and won by machinegun charging
heroes. They are waged by bakers and cab
drivers, salesmen and store clerks.
Those who do not volunteer, who do not want to be there, but, like my
father, answer the call when it comes.
They are fought by men who show up, do their duty despite their fear, and
then, for the lucky ones, go home again.
My father was such a man. He never, ever complained about his
service. Dad received no medals for
valor, but in the thick of violence he put his head down, and like his
comrades, moved forward. And in so
doing, he participated with the others of his time in defeating unimaginably
powerful forces of evil. He stood among
those to whom we all owe so much, those who journalist Tom Brokaw rightly
called The Greatest Generation.
___________________________________________
This
book is dedicated to my father, John Gay Bascom, to whom I owe so much, and
upon whose shoulders new generations now stand
… John Bascom