The Tiger's Tail

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

During the first Gulf War I attended a banquet in Laramie, Wyoming, honoring the new inductees into the University of Wyoming Athletic Hall of Fame. In attendance were university officials, members of the sports media, and a former United States senator. My father Ken Sturman had been selected to receive one of the awards. He played football at the university in the 1930's and was the first native born Wyomingite to be named as an All American.

Dad was by large measure the oldest athlete to be recognized that night and one of the last to speak. The speeches of the twenty-five to forty year olds were predictable and forgettable – thanking their coaches, what the award meant to them, and their fond memories of competing in athletics at the school. While listening to the presentations, I noticed my father reading some notes handwritten on a small piece of paper. What did he plan to say?

After my father was introduced I saw the younger athletes raising their eyebrows in anticipation of the reminiscences of an old man. Most of them never had heard of him, nor did they realize that rather than play professional football, he served as a highly decorated infantry officer in World War II and Korea.

Most World War II and Korea War veterans do not volunteer information about their war time experiences. Whether this reticence is due to modesty or an attempt to extinguish the unpleasant memories of combat is difficult to say. My father spoke to me on only a handful of occasions about his adventures, condensing four years of combat into a few hours.

Prior to the Second World War and while attending the University of Wyoming, my father participated in ROTC. With the war imminent he was commissioned a second lieutenant before receiving his degree. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, his unit conducted an amphibious landing and defeated the Japanese invaders on Attu Island in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. He commented the weather was very cold and his unit was not adequately clothed to handle the elements. He was involved in fierce close quarter combat but did not elaborate. The only other glimpse into the battle scene was a few old black and white photos of him and some other soldiers with confiscated Japanese weapons.

His next deployment involved warmer water and was the site of the next island assault – the Marshall Islands. He won both the first of his three Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts. Again he made no comment about the fighting but joked about the troop ship ride from the United States to the islands. To pass the time poker was a popular form of entertainment. After the first couple of days at sea the soldiers from large cities invariably won all the money from the country boys. The commanding officer ordered no more poker for the ranchers and farmers. Some would lose their lives in the next few weeks but not all their savings.

In 1944 and 1945 Dad took part in two more amphibious landings in the Pacific – Leyte Gulf in the Philippines and Okinawa near mainland Japan. He received his second Purple Heart and two more Bronze Stars during these engagements but was characteristically silent about the specifics.

After the conclusion of the war he returned home, but by 1951 he was in Korea with a United Nations force at the Battle of Heart Break Ridge. He won the Silver Star, the French Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the last of his three Purple Hearts. Years later when reading a book about Heart Break Ridge I found my father's name mentioned several times. When I brought this to his attention, he told me he was aware of the book. His commented that the Turks, Republic of Korea, and Mexican-American soldiers were very tough fighters, but nobody cut in front of a Turk in the lunch line because he would cut your throat.

After my father was wounded the Department of the Army notified my mother that his injuries were severe, and he was not expected to survive. She discovered a short time later that the army had confused my dad with someone else. His injuries were serious, however, so he was transferred home to recuperate. It must have been difficult during the war for my mother to be alone in Wyoming knowing at any moment terrible news could come her way. I cannot imagine her reaction when she received the notification every spouse dreads, only to have it retracted later. To live everyday waiting for an unwelcome telegram or knock on the door must have been agony.

Dad walked to the lectern with a serious look on his face. When he began to speak, he simply thanked everyone for the award, stated his appreciation that his family was with him, and followed with a few concise remarks about his sports career. And then... “We are at war with Iraq. American soldiers are dying in order to free the people Sadam Hussein attacked. It is time for all of us to give complete support to our troops, so they can defeat an enemy of the United States. The President needs only to call, and I will be on the next airplane to Iraq to serve as a combat officer to help lead us to victory.”

This was all he said. Even in this conservative Wyoming audience some probably wondered, “Who is this person? What type of man in his 70's feels such patriotic devotion to his country that he would publicly declare it is his duty to leave the safety of his home and travel half way around the world to fight a foreign despot?”

My father's patriotism and sense of duty were typical of many of his generation whose resilience and sacrifice were forged by the Great Depression and the Second World War. He felt it was immoral for Americans at home to go about their merry way if our soldiers were dying while fighting our enemies. The foe should be defeated quickly and totally to save as many American lives as possible, so we could return to peace with the same dispatch. He had no understanding of the half hearted incrementalism that dragged America through the Vietnam debacle. In his opinion declaring war is the most serious endeavor a country undertakes, but once the decision is made all efforts must be made to crush the enemy. The life of one American soldier is worth more than all of our adversary's military and civilian personnel. Once potential enemies of the United States understand our commitment and resolve, they are not so likely to play with the tiger's tail.