Celebrating family – and others – this Independence Day

It’s the Fourth of July later this week, and I’m feeling an overwhelming sense of patriotic gratitude to those who have helped make and keep my country – the United States of America – free.

     To celebrate, I decided to take a mental walk through some of the military history in my family tree. 

     One of my distant relatives, Machajah Mayfield, fought as a member of the Virginia State Troops with the Continental Army in the American Revolution. Needless to say, I never met him.

     Later on, several family members fought in the World Wars.

A great-uncle, Charles Asdell, served in Europe in World War I in the Balloon Corps, a new military technology at the time. He died long before I was born, but I do have clear memories of my aunt Geneva, his wife.

     One of my grandfathers, 1st Sgt. Clarence Ayon Dubree, was a highly decorated infantryman in World War II. He also was the man who taught me to fish.

     My other grandfather, Seaman 1st Class Ralph Ruddel Mayfield, was a sailor on the USS Hollandia, a small aircraft carrier that sailed to Saipan and Okinawa in support of U.S. Marines as they fought their way across the Pacific. Ralph died of a heart attack before I was born, but I remember my grandmother, Ethel, talking about him all the time. His nickname was Chick.

     Another relative by marriage, Bill Clark, was captured by the Japanese during the Second World War while fighting with Allied forces in the Philippines and then survived the grizzly transfer of prisoners known as the Bataan Death March, where hundreds of American soldiers met their death. Bill was always kind to children at family reunions, the only place I ever saw him.

     And then there was George Vaughn, an uncle on my father’s side of the family, who was also stationed in the Pacific. He worked as an Army corpsman. His job, at least part of the time, was to gather the American dead from battlefields and care for their bodies. George, as my father occasionally pointed out, was good at everything.

     I think of all these men with great reverence, and especially those I knew.

Grandpa Dubree and Uncle George I knew well. Bill Clark, just a bit.

     None of them talked much about their time at war. When asked about combat, my grandfather would tell people they didn’t want to know and change the topic.

But thanks to military records, my now-deceased grandmother’s memories and old newspaper clips, we do know a few details about my grandfather’s time in the war.

     According to military records and newspaper clips, he fought his way across Northern Africa against Gen. Irwin Rommel’s German forces and was present when 250,000 Nazis surrendered in Tunisia.

     A newspaper clip the Army supplied to media outlets in 1943 provided details of a French general awarding my grandfather the French Croix DeGuerre, a medal the French army awarded for acts of heroism in combat to non-French allies. The one time I do remember my grandfather answering a question about the war, he claimed to have done nothing to earn the French medal.

     My grandfather, according to military records, also was awarded an American Silver Star for sneaking behind enemy lines multiple times to observe German positions.

     His time fighting came to an end after he was wounded in combat.

     According to a newspaper report published in 1944, his unit was preparing for an attack while American and German pilots were battling overhead. One of those planes was shot from the sky, and just before impact, someone yelled a warning. My grandfather dove under a tank just before the plane slammed into it, creating a fireball. He was badly burned and, as a result, was awarded a Purple Heart.

     This week, as our nation celebrates its freedom, I wanted to honor these family members and everyone like them who fought honestly and honorably for the American cause.

     Here’s to all who have sacrificed and suffered over the past 248 years to help our country defend itself against kings, fascists, and emperors.

     Trevis Mayfield is president and owner of Sycamore Media, which owns The Monticello Express.