As Veterans Day ap-proaches, Alabama Baptists are making preparations to honor former military men and women of all ages. Some may attend parades at a church, or the church itself will invite a veteran to take the pulpit and share with members. Many of these speakers will be those who served in the World Wars, the Korean Conflict or the Vietnam War.
Parker Memorial Baptist Church, Anniston, hosted retired Army Colonel Ben Purcell of Georgia and his wife, Anne, who shared their story Nov. 3.
While serving in the Vietnam War, Ben Purcell was captured by the North Vietnamese Army in 1968 and held as a prisoner for five years. During those years, Anne Purcell never heard from him or had any news as to whether he was still alive or dead. But she raised their five children alone until her husband’s release.
“Her love is strong, and she was faithful,” Ben Purcell said.
Other speakers may come from the churches’ pews — and almost straight from the battlefield. Marine Master Sergeant Al Blankenship, a deacon at First Baptist Church, Clanton, shared his experiences with his congregation Nov. 2.
Using slides to accompany his stories, Blankenship showed the church Iraq through his eyes.
Although his deployment was shortened by a shooting injury, Blankenship said it was the prayers of the church that helped keep him safe. “I know for a fact that without a strong prayer shield and my body armor I’d have two holes in my chest instead of two cuts under my arm,” he said.
Even though the title veteran fits these soldiers who have recently served overseas, many are reluctant to claim it because of the great respect they have for those who fought before them.
“I think of [them] and how much harder what they did was,” said 23-year-old Tony Hathcock of Gadsden, who recently returned from Afghanistan. “I am a veteran, but knowing what they went through, I don’t like to compare it with what I did because I only saw a fraction of what they did.”
Shooting photos in the middle of a war fought without precision-guided missiles and the protection of body armor was nerve-wracking for Gene Sumners, a member of First Baptist Church, Vincent. Sumners spent the years from January 1943 to December 1945 in Europe with the Army, first as a jeep driver, then as a still photographer.
But Sumners was not the only nervous one, as there were also newspaper reporters and photographers with the troops.
“They were a lot smarter than the newspeople now,” Sumners recalled, “because they stayed way, way, way in the back.”
Fellow World War II veteran James Lowery said the advances made technologically since then have helped today’s soldiers do their jobs better without as much danger.
“As time has progressed, war has become convenient,” said Lowery, a member of Central Park Baptist Church, Decatur. “They’re not exposed to the roughness as much. Nathaniel (Goodwin, a young soldier who recently returned to the United States from Iraq) spent much of his duty in an armored vehicle.
“My brother spent the biggest part of his time in a foxhole,” he noted.
Blankenship, who has served since the 1970s, has seen the military advance even after the most recent of wars.
“We go (fight) and get smarter, and our leaders get smarter so the military gets smarter,” he said. “This has helped veterans and even vindicated some Vietnam veterans, because at least we learned some lessons (from the fighting).”
The 30 years of relative peace after the Vietnam War were the key to so many of the modern weapons and combat tools soldiers have today, Blankenship added.
“If it had not been for those serving under arms in the 1970s and ’80s, we would have had more conflicts, but their presence kept that from happening,” he said. That in turn allowed the military time to prepare and create more sophisticated weapons and better ways of keeping soldiers safe.
But whatever the differences in combat and technology, the heroic forerunners of World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam consider today’s soldiers as equals.
“Whether they saw combat or not, they’re all veterans to me,” Lowery said.
That attitude humbles Blankenship. “We really feel like they saw and did a lot more than we did. Those of us today have tremendous respect for them and what they did. For them to consider you a warrior as they are is humbling.”
(Theresa Shadrix contributed)
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