Veterans Day 2019: Remembering Stories of Honor That Can Inspire Us Today
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Sun, 11/10/2019 - 11:56am
We could all benefit from stories about honor and heroes right now, especially during this era when extreme partisan politics have upended our country’s equilibrium. Some way, somehow higher roads need to be taken and it needs to start with our ruling political class. Maybe these poignant stories from years past can rekindle a sense of honor that seems in short supply these days.
These well-documented stories recall selfless acts of honor and bravery that occurred years and oceans apart during World War II and involved an American battleship captain, a Japanese kamikaze pilot and a German fighter pilot. They can provide some key insights and stimulate thoughtful reflection about what it means to do the right thing at the right time in the most difficult of situations.
On April 11, 1945 Captain William Callaghan was at the helm of the USS Missouri during the battle of Okinawa when 19-year-old Setsuo Ishino flew his fighter plane into the side of the battleship with the sole purpose of killing as many Americans as possible. Fortunately, the plane’s bomb cache discharged prematurely and the crash caused minimal damage with no casualties except that of the young Japanese pilot.
Even though kamikaze attacks had a relatively low success rate where many suffered fates similar to that of Ishino’s attempt, they were relentless and always fatal for the Japanese pilots who flew them. American disgust for such barbaric attacks was fully understandable. Yet later that same day and up against the backlash of his own crew, Captain Callaghan did the unthinkable — he ordered the Japanese pilot be given an honorable burial at sea.
Far away and about one and a half years earlier, on December 20, 1943 German fighter pilot Franz Stigler also did the unthinkable. In the heat of a vicious air battle against the 379th squadron over the skies of Bremen, Germany he had the heavily damaged American B-17 bomber “Ye Olde Pub” and its wounded crew in his gun sights, literally as a sitting duck. But he suddenly changed the course of his Messerschmitt fighter and joined formation on the bomber’s right wing to guide U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Charlie Brown and what was left of his nine-member crew to safety. He had looked his enemy in the eye but couldn’t pull the trigger even though he had done so many times before. As documented in Adam Makos’s riveting book A Higher Call, odds were very high Stigler would have faced a Gestapo-ordered firing squad if word got out he helped an enemy pilot escape.
Captain Callaghan held firm to his convictions — the Japanese soldier was doing his duty, he was following orders, he was willing to sacrifice his life fighting for his country. Even though Callaghan lost an older brother two years earlier to enemy fire on the USS San Francisco and America’s hatred for her enemies was at a fever pitch, he saw things for what they really were. It would have been much easier to simply dump the plane and pilot’s remains in the ocean. His men would have cheered. But that would not have been the honorable thing to do. He knew it and deep inside themselves his men knew it too, which is why they followed his orders.
Franz Stigler was a flying ace — as a German fighter pilot he had tallied many “kills” and downing one more bomber would have potentially earned him the coveted Knight’s Cross, adding to his notoriety. But he too lost a brother in the war and firing away at a helpless American crew which was doing its duty, following its orders, and fighting for its country, was not something he was willing to do, at least not in that moment. He not only allowed the half-destroyed bomber to escape, he personally guided it to safer skies.
Just imagine, a battleship captain goes above and beyond the call of duty to give his mortal enemy an honorable burial at sea the day after that same enemy tried to sink his ship. And a German pilot, at great risk to his own detriment, escorts his mortal enemy to safety shortly after that same enemy dropped bombs on his homeland. A higher-level thinking occurred here.
These stories of honor from nearly seventy-six years ago, from a wartime that for most of us is beyond comprehension, should not only be remembered, they should be revered. Perhaps they can help reset and stimulate some deeper thinking amongst our elected and appointed leaders in Washington, where governing for the people and by the people resurfaces as priority number one over the partisan behaviors tearing at the very fabric of our country.
Pie-in-the-sky? Maybe. But the selfless actions of people like William Callaghan and Franz Stigler during the most difficult of times reminds us that just about anything is possible. Really, compared to their actions reaching-across-the-aisle for the higher good seems like child’s play. Let’s draw on examples of honor like those in this article for inspiration — where motives based on what’s best for country supplant those based on what’s best for personal or political gain. Let’s have this discussion. This is what can make America great again.
And don’t forget to thank a veteran.
— Michael Raponi writes guest articles covering a variety of topics, and may be contacted by email at michael.raponi@outlook.com.
