I’Ll Never Cry Tomorrow

By Xlibris US

This is the story of one familys sacrifi ces in America during World War II,
including two supreme sacrifi ces and the familys struggle to overcome
the effects of that war upon their future generations.
In the renewal, after the war ends, the country has transitioned from war
production to civilian production. The family ignores the lessons of the
past, believing their children can build peaceful and happy lives in the
present day without sacrifi ce.
The unforeseen day arises with the emergence of new wars and their
effect upon the family. Again, as all wars end, this one ceases, and
revival begins.
The new family revives with support and friends, but in the settled
renewal, a member is lost, leaving the other in sorrow and grief, but
hope abounds with new friends close by for care and support

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499007596

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Presley W. Clarke Jr.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014907606

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-4990-0760-2

              Softcover     978-1-4990-0761-9

              eBook           978-1-4990-0759-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 05/07/2014

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 A New War Defined by the Past

Chapter 2 A Childs View of War

Chapter 3 Returning Home

Chapter 4 A New Member Arrives into the Family

Chapter 5 College and Marriage

Chapter 6 The Military Effect

Chapter 7 Teaching

Chapter 8 Marty Retires

Chapter 9 The Return

Chapter 10 The Final Days

Chapter 11 The Attempt to Recover

Chapter 12 The New Beginning: Friends

Dedication

This book is dedicated in memory of my loving wife,

Marty S. Clarke

More than an end to war, we want an end

To the beginnings of Wars.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

April 13, 1945

CHAPTER 1

A New War Defined by the Past

O n Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the Japanese Imperial

Empire, using their airpower, bombed Pearl Harbor, committing

a carnage of death and destruction of unprecedented proportions.

President Franklin Roosevelt, on December 8, appeared before Congress asking for a Declaration of War against Japan, and Congress responded that same day without a dissenting vote. The day following the Declaration of War, he broadcast a message on radio to the nation describing our relations with Japan, the actions of Germany and Italy, and our preparations for war stating that our nation was a nation of builders, not destroyers.

It was a period in history pervaded by apprehension and inconceivable fear of the future. This was the first time in over one hundred and fifty years that this nation faced an enemy so evil and powerful that it threatened our future existence as a nation.

In 1776, the English activist Thomas Paine described in his book The American Crisis, These are the times that try men’s souls. On March 23, 1775, at the Third Virginia Convention in Richmond, Virginia, Patrick Henry, a Virginia delegate, spoke loud and clear to the convention regarding whether to accept peace or war declared. I know not others’ course may take, but as for me, give me liberty or death.

Fear and panic were rampant in those early days before the revolutionary war began, much like it was in 1941. The spirit of freedom so aptly declared by Patrick Henry in 1775 had become an American declaration against all tyranny. In 1941, a new tyranny threatened America as my father was soon to realize.

My father’s military service for his country had begun early in his life—a six-month term of active duty service in the year 1918, World War I. He had been living on a farm located in Mason County, West Virginia, situated adjacent to the Ohio River. His family was relatively large, considering there were six males and three females. During the cold winters, he would attend a school located on the Ohio State side of the river, walking across the river when it was frozen over in the winter which was quite a distance across, averaging one half mile in width, to attend a small one-room school comprised of ten students and a teacher.

While attending this school in his early years, an incident occurred that is reminiscent of today’s students, but I doubt the punishment received now would be as severe as was administered by a father in 1915.

He and a friend decided to skip school one spring day to go fishing in the Ohio River, and upon returning at the end of the school day, they returned in time to complete their farm chores before the evening meal. Dad indicated he was in a cheerful mood during the meal and discussed many things about the farm and inquired on the latest news of their neighbor who had been injured in a fall from his tractor.

At the end of the meal, his father asked if he had enjoyed school today as much as he had enjoyed visiting his son’s classes this day. Before Dad could respond, my grandfather continued quietly in a deliberate and penetrating voice. I have had additional work to accomplish on the farm, and since you have extra time in the day to fish each day before breakfast, you will help your older brothers with milking the cows, and as soon as you arrive from school in the afternoon, you will work with plowing the south field and then eat a late meal and complete your lessons and prepare for bed.

Dad graduated from this school located on the Ohio side of the river, earning excellent grades as a student and applied to West Virginia University for acceptance into the School of Arts and Sciences and was admitted for the coming year.

In his second year at WVU, he was informed he would be drafted into the U.S. Army in the fall of 1918, and he enlisted on October of 1918. He was nineteen and two twelfths years of age, as his records indicated, and classified as single and in excellent health and was inoculated for typhoid prophylaxis on October 26,1918, at the local hospital before being shipped by train to the basic training center at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

While in training, the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 occurred, a virus that infected the Fort Knox basic training recruits, killing many within hours and days, closing the camp temporarily, and requiring the healthy recruits as my father to assist in removing the bodies from the barracks. Dad indicated their bodies would turn a blue color sometimes. Fortunately, he did not become infected with the flu virus or cold symptoms.

The war was coming to a close, and he was honorably discharged from duty on April 12, 1919, six months after he enlisted. He returned to West Virginia University to complete his remaining years and graduated, receiving a degree and a military commission. He then applied for a teaching position in Racine, Ohio, where he taught for several years. Deciding to return to West Virginia to teach, he applied for a position at Capon Bridge High School, Capon Bridge, West Virginia; was accepted and taught; and was highly regarded as a teacher in that community and where he met a young lady whom he later married upon her graduation.

My father, now an experienced high school teacher and commissioned as a captain in the United States Army Air Force Reserve, appeared before his high school classes the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. After hearing the announcement of the declaration of war on radio the night before, he reluctantly informed his students the next day that he would be leaving the school when orders to report for duty were received. That afternoon, the president’s broadcast speech to the nation was transmitted through the school’s public address system and listened to by the entire faculty and student body in the auditorium.

Dad recalled the fear and emotion of that day expressed by faculty and students alike. Many students cried openly and faculty’s eyes teared as the president described the cowardly attack upon Pearl Harbor on early Sunday morning. There were no screams of fright or cries of resentment by the students as they filed back into their classrooms; only a woeful and dismal silence seemed to fill the air.

My oldest brother, a junior in high school, requested permission to enlist in the U.S. Army the following day, to which my mother vehemently declined, acknowledging tearfully that her husband would soon receive military orders for assignment in the U.S. or in the Country of Canada or possibly Europe. The need for men to fight in this war did not exclude most men from the call of military duty because the country’s need for manpower was critical.

My father, as a teacher with children of his own, was not excused from duty because of the nation’s immediate needs. My mother was relieved when he received orders to report to Fort Dix, New Jersey, as a duty officer charged with the responsibility of feeding and housing returning commandoes from combat tours in Europe and procuring their new assignments or reassignments.

However, she did not understand his orders requiring him to settle his affairs at home and report to Fort Dix within seven days, and she was upset further believing that his assignment to the U.S. Army Air Force Air Transport Command relocation in Montana in four months might become orders to assign him to an overseas assignment.

My mother was visibly upset but gathered her family together—my two brothers and I—and prepared to close the house and store the home furnishings. My dad had reluctantly decided to rent the house instead of advertising it for sale, considering there was little time for sales talk, and hopefully we should return after the war.

This desire to return to our home and communities was endured by all the families relocated or separated by this war.

We believed we would