The Vanishing Generation

This is a day or two late for Memorial Day.

I am fortunate, living almost on the NC/SC state line to receive Public Television programs produced in both states.

Earlier this week I watched a re-run of a SC Educational TV network program recorded a couple of years ago and narrated by our own RR member Jim Seay.

It was titled The Vanishing Generation and contained interviews with a number of SC WWII heroes. Several featured in the program are no longer with us. To a man, none considered themselves a hero, they all pointed out that the heroes were lying under white crosses and Stars of David.

I was struck by what an elderly gentleman from the Charleston area had to say that is equally applicable to racing.

Paraphrased: "You have to understand the past to operate in the present and plan for the future."

Hope some NASCAR personnel were listening to these heroes.

And here is a link that will take you to a descriptive page of that SC ETV production that contains briefs on the participants and a short video from the original 2006 production narrated by Jim Seay.

http://www.scetv.org/index.php/carolina_stories/show/the_vanishing_generation/

They a'int listening, Dave, they a'int got a clue.

We can ask Buford Z Franks if he gets it.

I feel really fortunate for my son and I to have a WWII navy vet as my son's scoutmaster. Mr. Green turned 84 I think it was in May. He said he'd never been on a train and certainly not west of Nashville when his time came to serve. But he boarded a train with a bunch of other boys who signed up with the navy, and they rode cross-country to California to ship out. He'd obviously never been at sea and was sick all the way across the ocean. Eventually, he spent much of his time in the service as land support for the ships.

The man is incredible. He still runs a local real estate practice with his wife. He has about 50 acres of land and about 25 head of cattle. He spends every Tuesday night helping the Senior Patrol Leader run his program for about 80 scouts. And he spends 2 hours about 45-50 Saturdays of the year teaching basic skills to new scouts - knots, lashings, first aid, fire making, etc. He has spent basically his whole life in Franklin TN & is a human encyclopedia of local history. He still leads the boys on their first 5 mile hike & tells him historical anecdotes along the way.

He laughs a little bit at times now about how young he was, how lost he was aboard the ship, and so on. But he'll often turn serious and mist forms in his eyes as he'll tell you "We were just boys. The stuff we saw. The things we had to do." And then his voice will trail off.

One of the scouts who is a friend of my son and whose dad I've become friends with myself has been struggling with what to do for an Eagle project. He is into movie making/videography. I've encouraged him to consider a video project with Mr. Green. Sit down with the man and capture his life's journey before he is gone. Make a nice documentary and give it to our local library or historical commission. He hadn't thought about it before, but he is now. I've told him time is of the essence though because at 84 getting to 85 isn't an automatic thing.

TMC, you hit it buddy. I am of the age where I remember growing up surrounding by Vets, my father being one. I went to church with two guys who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and listening to what they went through was incredible. I met a man who was in the first wave on D-Day who lost both legs and who told me about lying on the beach for hours before medics got to him. I met a man who was a POW in a Jap prison camp. The stories he told me were unbelieveable but he bore the scars. All of these men, including my Daddy, never talked about these things until they were in their late 60s at least. I never knew my Daddy saved his company on an island in the Pacific until I went to a reunion of his 77th Division in 1987 and the Colonel of the Division was telling me the story. Daddy never mentioned it. After my mother died and we were cleaning out the attic of the old home place, we found a box containing many medals, including the Bronze Star and others I can't recall now. My Neice has all those now. I guess I need to go look them up.

But the point is well made that to understand the present, you MUST remember the past. To build a future, you must have a starting point. NASCAR had that. NASCAR had the starting point which it now chooses to overlook and ignore completely. I still communicate with a ton of race fans, not only those of us here, but many who attend races regularly. From those who go regularly, the word "boring" is so common now that I even know how to spell it. I have heard more and more of these fans saying "that's it, I'm not going back". And these fans are, many at least, in that coveted 18 to 26 demographic NASCAR so prizes. I can't count the number of folks I grew up with in racing who loved it as much as I, who now don't even watch on tv. I truly don't know where the sport is going these days but I'm not alone there. It is a runaway vehicle controlled by those who don't care about anything but the dollar. The heritage of the sport is lost to the sport. With NASCAR using every Hollywood-type device conceiveable, including the 99% nude Danica Patrick, what can we expect? I heard The King say, ina speech to a distinguish group in Columbia a few years ago, that NASCAR is now in the entertainment industry rather than the sporting industry. Well, from the viewpoint of this Legend, it's not even entertaining anymore. When FOX is allowed to have two Waltrips sqeaking their inane comments, it is not entertaining. It is, in fact, disgusting. But I digress. The point here is that we have a wonderful hertiage in the sport and even moreso in the men and women who are still with us who saved us from German and Japan at their worst. I always say I'm so happy to be old enough to have seen the Hudson Hornet on the track right in front of me and old enough to have heard, first hand, the stories of the heroes, every one of them, who gave so much in the World War and many of whom still give so much. God bless them everyone.

Like you, Tim - we never even knew my father-in-law had been awarded a Silver Star for Gallantry in Action until we found the citation and various medals following his death. Somewhere, we have an army Signal Corpsman's b&w photo of the medal being pinned on Tom's "Eisenhower" jacket in the Huertgen Forest with his remaining platoon members standing alongside.

This was a brief synopsis of something he never talked about. He lost too many buddies.

ACTIVITY DURING WWII
ENTERED SERVICE OCTOBER 21, 1941. SQUAD LEADER, 2ND SQUAD, 2ND PLATOON, COMPANY B, 4TH ENGINEER COMBAT BATTALION, 4TH DIVISION, 3RD ARMY. PARTICIPATED IN BATTLES OF THE RHINELAND, ARDENNES AND CENTRAL EUROPE. WOUNDED IN ACTION IN GERMANY. SILVER STAR RECIPIENT FOR GALLANTRY IN ACTION IN VICINITY OF GEY, GERMANY NOVEMBER 20, 1944. ASSIGNED MISSION OF PREPARING ANTI-PERSONNEL WARNING DEVICES TO BE PLACED IMMEDIATELY FORWARD OF 2 INFANTRY COMPANIES FIGHTING IN HUERTGEN FOREST. REFUSED TO ACCEPT ASSISTANCE FROM ANY OTHER MEMBER DUE TO HAZARDOUS NATURE OF THE MISSION. HONOREE'S SUCCESSFUL ACCOMPLISHMENT ASSURED THE INFANTRY IN THE AREA THAT NO HOSTILE TROOPS COULD PENETRATE THEIR POSITIONS WITHOUT SOUNDING A WARNING OR SUSTAINING INJURY. ARMY SERIAL NUMBER 34 172 919. SEPARATED MAY 28, 1945 FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA.

Thank God there were men and women like my father-in-law and you folks' relatives and acquaintances as documented who answered the call.

This is a photo of my late father-in-law, Tom Daniels of Wilson, NC, a finished carpenter and tobacco farmer. He was buried in those bib overalls. Although his shoes always came off officially on May 1, I'm sure he was thankful for whatever was left of his combat boots in the snows of the Huertgen Forest. Kind of like when they say you can't tell the drivers without a program, you can't tell the heroes by their photos. No one in his family knew the hell this modest man and his compatriots endured until his passing.

The "Vanishing Generation" is the thousands of loyal veteran stock car racing fans (talking NASCAR here) who made the sport what it is (or used to be). The "newbie" NASCAR fans haven't a clue about the dedication, hard work, and pure love of the sport of racing that preceded the "show" that we are witnessing today. The environment is always changing, for sure, but it's still nice to know there are still a few of us around who remember the "good old days".

I absolutely agree, Tim - my heart swells with pride when I think of our veterans and the sacrifices they made, many the ultimate sacrifice, to protect and insure our freedoms. As you also stated, in so many words, the "Vanishing Generation" is the thousands of stock car racing fans (talking NASCAR here) who made the sport what it is (or used to be). The "newbie" fans have no clue about the dedication, hard work, and pure love of racing which created NASCAR. Sadly,I also believe the current NASCAR administration has lost sight of it's heritage, and the sport will never even resemble what we once all loved. At least, there are some of us still around who remember the "good old days".

Instead of fretting about the past try traveling to some sprint car, midget, PASS late model races and forget the joke NASCAR has become. Look into names like Kyle Larson, Brady Bacon and such. We watched Ryan Blaney 4 years ago. Everyone wants to get to Cup because of the money, but the best racing isn't in NASCRAP. Staying home from the races because of NASCAR isn't the answer. Brian France et al have been a disaster.

For all the years I worked at the Richmond track, the best race I ever saw there was a USAC Silver Crown open wheel affair with Kenny Irwin, Mike Bliss and Tony Stewart before they tried their hand at NASCAR stock cars.

Guess I screwed up - this posted twice, but this one didn't show my comment regarding veterans. Just to be clear, our military veterans and the jobs they did in service to our country (many making the ultimate sacrifice) in order to protect and preserve our freedoms and lifestyles will always be far, far more important than racing or any other forms of entertainment which we enjoy. We all owe them a huge debt and a ton of thanks for everything they did. Although the specific day that we honor these brave men and women was last weekend, we need to keep our priorities in the right place and insure that they are honored every single day.