September 2011 - Irish American News

22 Irish American News “We’ve Always Been Green!” September 2011A Salute to Ground ZeroOne of the most touching events one canexperience in the naval service is passing theUSS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Thecrew of an entire naval vessel, be it a tinyminesweeper or a giant supercarrier “mansthe rails” standing at attention while theship’s officers salute the unique Pearl Harbormemorial.The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011has been called this generation’s Pearl Harbor,and thinking back ten years the comparisonwasn’t lost on my Greatest Generation parents.As I saw news of the first World Trade Centertower struck on my computer and learned ofthe second via live television, I made a quickcall home to Northbrook. My mom Audrey wasalways the one to call me with breaking news...this time I barely beat her. “Mom, are you watchingthis? Is this what Pearl Harbor was like?”At then age 83 and two months shy of 84,Mom was still in real estate sales and startedher day in front of the tube.“Oh Good Lord yes, this is exactly what itwas like. We were just shocked. Jim, weren’tyou downtown at the time?”My dad James Henry McClure, 87, shoutedup the stairs “Yeah, I was at the office backwhen I was a bigshot, so what!?” “Dadwas in downtown Chicago working in hisoffice catchingup when I heardthe news on theradio, “Momrelated. “Wecalled and talkedit over andknew nothingwould be thesame from that point.”After the three of us talked nothing was thesame, either from that point on the phone in2011 or the one in 1941. During the surrenderceremony in Tokyo Bay, a beanpole skinny2nd Lt. J.H. McClure of the U.S. Army SignalCorps watched the historic event from aVictory ship loaded with occupation materielalongside the USS Missouri. Dad spent fouryears in the Pacific after enlisting in 1941,missing the death of his father and the birthof his first son.If my dad was somewhat aged in his late20’s my grandfather Tom Corley was a federalmuseum piece.A former World War I artillery captain, hecajoled, bullied and fitness-tested his way atage 44 into a combat assignment as a chiefpetty officer gunnery instructor on a jeepcarrierhe helped save by shooting down akamikaze during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Heand several black cooks manned a gun whoseprevious occupants were cut down by enemyfire. His captain would bring him on chargesfor shooting across the bow, an admiral sawotherwise and gave him the Bronze Star.At age 40 and rising my own less thandistinguished career as a Marine midshipmanon a Notre Dame NROTC scholarship cutshort by a medical discharge after a combattraining injury, was neither the stuff of legendnor of beating 38-year old age limits. “Youknow you can do more with a pen, don’t you?”said Marine Sgt. Major Mac Elvington, mycollege assistant Marine officer instructor asa staff sergeant. Mac’s own reputation waslegendary as drill instructor of two futureMarine generals at Notre Dame, not to mentionseveral generations of enlisted Marines,female Marines, British Royal Marines (androyalty), and several classes at the U.S. NavalAcademy, where Mac was the model for TomClancy’s spit-polish Marine officer instructorin his novel Patriot Games.As usual I didn’t quite follow Mac’s advice(a.k.a. “seeing the (pool) shot”) and spentthe next two years lobbying, cajoling, andimploring National Guard and Naval Reserverecruiters that I was the best old man for thejob. “If you want to go to Afghanistan so bad,why don’t you freelance report? I’ll carry yourcamera bag fer ya,” Mac suggested. Later asthe economy, my public relations career andmy marriage crumbled, Mac would cheerlead.“You bust into that recruiter’s office andtell him you’re Six-Foot-Three of Rompin’Stompin’ Death and Destruction!”It didn’t work. Not in the National Guard,the Naval Reserve, the regular Navy not tomention the halls of Springfield, Washington,D.C., the Pentagon, the local state senator orthe very local Speaker of the U.S. House. Hedid send a very nice commemorative flag upthe Rotunda pole for me just as the letter requestingan age waiver from the acting Secretaryof the Navy was going down in flames.I felt strongly that most of my tail-endbaby boomer generation had paid their duesin Grenada and Kuwait… and some werestriking the mountains in Afghanistan andsweeping into Iraq as I stayed home old, aloneand worn out.I did find my way into the U.S. Naval SeaCadet Officer Corps, which uses volunteerveterans to help teach citizenship and militaryskills to future Marines, sailors and CoastGuardsmen. A couple years back I foundmyself on the deck of the assault ship USSIwo Jima as it steamed into New York harborapproaching Ground Zero. “STAND BY TORENDER HONORS” blared the loudspeakeras thousands of sailors in white snapped to attentionon the rails. Just like Pearl Harbor!“I NEED FOUR OFFICERS FORWARDON THE FLIGHT DECK!” echoed thespeaker. Three were already there… onelooked back at me in my humble Ensign dresswhites. “Well, what are YOU waiting for Mister?”“Sir, I’m just a Sea Cadet escort officer,”I meekly replied as the gaping hole where theTwin Towers were loomed near. “Yeah,” hespat back. “And you’re what the future is allabout… and part of the family. Get your buttover here!”A few seconds later three regular Navyofficers and a slighty disheveled if somewhatout of shape 47 year old junior officer smartlysaluted for ship’s company as we passed theWorld Trade Center.Part of the family.IrishRoverJim@aol.com.Remember the TenBy Pol O’Hearcain (Long Kesh, 1975/1981)On Oct. 2nd, 2011, at the Irish AmericanHeritage Center in Chicago, supporters of the mainbody of Irish Republicanism led by Gerry Adamsand Martin McGuinness will commemorate the30th anniversary of the infamous Long Kesh/HBlock Hunger strike in which ten young men gavetheir lives thattheir comradescould be grantedthe reinstatementof Prisoner ofWar status. Thefight for POWstatus was notnew to Irish Republicans.TheBritish have alwayssought toBobby Sandscriminalise the struggle for Irish freedom, believingthat by doing so they could demoralize theIRA and her Volunteers and break their will toresist British occupation. Maggie Thatcher, thethen Leader of the British establishment, totallyunderestimated the will and courage of the incarceratedIrish Republican Volunteers. Bobby Sands,Francis Hughs, Ramond McCreesh, Patsy O’Hara,Keiran Doherty, Kevin Lynch, Joe McDonald,Martin Hurson, Thomas McElwee, and MichaelDivene gave their young lives that their comradeswould not have to continue to endure conditionsthat were described as being like the “Sewers ofCalcutta” by the late Bishop Thomas O’Feigh whovisited the prison.I recently read an article in this very paper, theauthor of which asserted that Gerry Adams hadconspired to use the hunger strike and the prisonersplight to further his political career. ApparentlyAdams’ plan was to encourage these young mento give up their lives so that he and his party, SinnFéin, could then ride the tide of sympathy. As aformer Irish Republican POW, I was incarceratedin Long Kesh throughout the blanket protests andthe first and second Hunger strikes. During thatperiod, I held the position of Public RelationsOfficer and was in direct contact with protestingprisoners. I can state that at no time were weinfluenced or ordered to protest by the leadershipof the movement on the outside. All decisions toprotest, including the Hunger Strikes, were madeby the prisoners themselves and were influencedonly by the excessively harsh treatment of ourBritish captors.Today, thirty years on, We have come a long…Continued on Page 26