{"id":109744,"date":"2019-11-08T12:04:04","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T17:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=109744"},"modified":"2019-11-08T12:04:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T17:04:04","slug":"the-musings-of-a-simple-country-man-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=109744","title":{"rendered":"The Musings of a Simple Country Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Hobie Morris<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

An Armistice\/Veteran\u2019s Day post script: They aren\u2019t forgotten<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hobie Morris<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 1917, a 16-year-old Missourian named Frank\nWoodruff Buckles lied himself into the Army, claiming that Missouri didn\u2019t\npublish birth records. The young \u201cdoughboy,\u201d as American soldiers were called,\nserved most of the war in France as an ambulance driver and later an escort for\nGerman POWs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, this World War veteran happened to find himself\nin Manila, P.I., on business when the Japanese invaded in December 1941. He\nwould spend the next three years in a prisoner of war camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, 2011, Buckles passed away. Later, he was buried\nin Arlington National Cemetery \u2013 only 50 yards from another Missourian, his\ncommanding general, John \u201cBlack Jack\u201d Pershing. Though hardly as famous as\nPershing, Buckles is a very important man \u2013 the last surviving American veteran\nof World War I. (He joins the ranks of several other \u201clast\u201d veterans: Lemuel\nCook, Revolution: died 1866; Albert Woolson, Civil War: died 1966. Others from\nmore recent conflicts will eventually join their comrades.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do these men represent the \u201cend\u201d of these wars? Hardly. The\nripples from past wars seem to follow future generations in countless ways long\ninto the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

World War I is over a century old. (WW2 is more than 75\nyears past.) Even today, one missing WWI soldier is found in France every week:\nunearthed by farmer\u2019s plows and developers bulldozers from the fields of the\nWestern Front. There are an estimated 155,000 soldiers from both wars whom have\nnever been found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, six bodies were unearthed in one spot: six\nunidentified Scottish soldiers who broke into the German lines during the\nBattle of Loos in 1915. They paid with their lives; the Germans put them into a\nshell hole where they remained for 104 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One third of these bodies will be identified and later given\na full military funeral. Those not identified will be honored as \u201ca soldier of\nthe Great War \u2013 known unto God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Benjamin Franklin once observed, \u201cthere are no good wars\nor bad peace.\u201d Civil War Union General William T. Sherman mused, \u201cWar is hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, wars ripple on and on . . . long after the cheering\nand parades are forgotten and the weapons are finally silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carl Sandburg once wrote about a young girl who asked her father,\n\u201cWhat if there is a war and nobody comes?\u201d This young girl\u2019s love of others we\nshould strive with all our hearts and souls to replicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But these are just the musings of a simple country man who\nhas seen that there must be better ways. As my good friend, Wendell Berry, has\nwritten, \u201cThe Earth is what we all have in common.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hobie Morris is a\nBrookfield resident and simple country man.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Armistice\/Veteran\u2019s Day post script: They aren\u2019t forgotten By Hobie Morris In August 1917, a 16-year-old Missourian named Frank Woodruff Buckles lied himself into the Army, claiming that Missouri didn\u2019t publish birth records. The young \u201cdoughboy,\u201d as American soldiers were called, served most of the war in France as an ambulance driver and later an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23677,23808,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-sy4","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Morris-head-new.jpg?fit=226%2C287&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}