A few were not heroes
America’s annual Veterans Day has come and gone along with the media coverage, public speeches, and private remembrances. Wars have changed a lot since WWII. They are fought differently and thought of differently. Several things have not changed and the most important fact is that our freedom has been paid for over and over again by those who served “honorably” in the Armed Forces.
As part of Veteran’s Day activity, there are stories about highly decorated heroes, vets who stand above the average. It is my belief war in many ways is harder on those at home then it is on those in the fight. If we at home lose a family member, we do have something left. We have memories. I look at my brother’s medals and feel the pride; but not everyone can be a hero. That is not a happy thought but it is a fact and I am going to discuss it today.
During and after WWII, 21,000 American Servicemen were convicted of desertion, “abandonment of a post of duty.” That is 1.3 out of every 1,000. From that group, 49 were sentenced to die but after the red tape was unraveled, only one soldier was executed for desertion. Article were written about it, and Hollywood made a movie on the “ordeal of Private Slovik.” He was put in front of a firing squad in France on January 31st, 1945, right after the Battle of the Bulge where so many Americans were killed by the Nazi’s last big counter attack. General Eisenhower reviewed Slovik’s sentence and gave the final go-ahead. Emotions were very high and there was military talk about “setting an example.”
Eddie Slovik got back in the news in July 1987, when his body was exhumed from a French cemetery for reburial in Detroit. This was paid for by a sentimental Polish-American veteran who just wanted young Slovik returned to his adopted land and buried next to the wife he’d had for such a short time.
The private funeral planned for Private Slovik on Saturday, July 4th, 1987, didn’t happen. Someplace between New York’s Kennedy Airport and Detroit, Michigan, TWA freight operators lost the coffin.
I’ve written before about deserters from World War II, because it was something which deeply touched my life as a soldier in the occupation of Europe. Part of my duties involved direct and indirect work removing names from a huge list of men who didn’t answer roll call … after the guns went silent. Who was missing in action? Who was a deserter? It still bothers me. The United States government as well as the media have mostly ignored that painful issue as it relates to WW II. I know of no good books on the subject. Even World Almanacs skirt the issue.
We know over 16 million served in the American armed forces in World War II. 292,000 were killed as a result of hostile action, and another 115,000 died of non-combat injuries or disease.
If the figures we worked with in 1946 and 47 through the Graves Registration Corp of St. Germain, France, were classified “secret”, it doesn’t matter now. We were told then there were a roughly estimated 20,000 to 22,000 American deserters in France, with man in the Paris area. Because I knew about them, I often think about all those young men who mad a bad mistake, and I think about their families. The one I had a chance to interview was fearful for his life. Can’t help but believe an unknown number killed themselves, because they thought they would face a firing squad, and/or were ashamed of what they’d done. In the 65 years since WW II ended, I’ve talked to several combat vets who admittedly came close to “making an escape from the lines,” at least “for a few days.”
Slovik’s lost coffin was eventually found and there was a funeral in Detroit, Michigan, 42 years after his death. Those people haunted by the tragedy of Eddie Slovik had some closure … but what about the others? The thousands we don’t know about. What of their families?
Compared to what some others have endured … maybe Private Slovik was lucky.
G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist.