My Papaw, My Hero

It's no secret how proud I am of my Papaw, Harvey H. Wallace. I only wish I was a fraction of how brave he was. He was a true American Hero. But, he wouldn't have agreed with that title. None of our brave soldiers ever think that they are hero's. That is what makes them so special. They are so humble...I guess that is what the true American Spirit is all about. I know that if it were me, and I had medals, newspaper articles, awards or anything like that...I would have them displayed and everybody would know about it within the first few minutes of talking to me. But that is not the way that our great troops roll...they are modest in their heroism.

I recently came upon a few pictures of my Papaw from his war days. I scanned and cropped them and made copies for my Dad for his Father's Day gift. Like I have mentioned before, he was a bombardier for the United States Army Air Force during WWII. He was a member of the 351st Bomb Group...511th Squadron, stationed at Polebrook, England.


A bombardier is the one who sits in the little glass bubble and drops the bombs on targets. They are the ones who yell..."BOMBS AWAY!!!" I can only imagine how frightening that was like. I have found pictures that were classified at one time, of bombs actually being dropped on targets. Just thinking about the excitement they must have felt, with machine guns shooting, air blowing, shrapnel and flak flying all over, gives me chills.

Cap. Harvey H. Wallace

One of his war buddies did this picture for him, many years ago, before photo-shopping! This is one of my favorite photos of photos of him, he looks so handsome!

This was taken right after one of his missions.

My Papaw also served in the war with Clark Gable. They even flew in a mission together. My dad has a dollar bill with his autograph on it.

One of the coolest things about the Internet is the research and wealth of information you can find. All my life, I always knew that my Papaw had served with Clark Gable and that Clark Gable was filming some kind of movie while at Polebrook. We even had tons of pictures of filming. I never knew just what was being filmed though. My Dad didn't know either. I researched and researched and finally found what it was. It was a movie called COMBAT AMERICA.

Combat America was a propaganda movie filmed by the USAAF in 1943. It was a film that showed what everyday day to day life was like on the base in England. The purpose of the film was to get more volunteer enlistments. By the time the film came out though, there was more than enough volunteers. It was still an interesting movie, especially for us today so that we can see what life was like back then for our soldiers.It was pretty cool for me to finally get to see what these pictures was all about. The whole time I was watching the movie, I was thinking about which picture I had seen before in certain shots.

This was a mansion that was used by the Red Cross as a place for injured soldiers to recuperate.

My Papaw was in a ton of missions. His last mission he was hit by flak (shrapnel flying in the sky), and lost his right arm. Thank God that is all he lost, because had he lost his life I wouldn't be here!:-)

Thank A Soldier

Here is a link that you can go on to say Thanks to a soldier. We definitely need to remember to be grateful for them around this time of year. I know it has to be hard for them being away from their family and friends during the holidays. I bet it would make their day just to get a little note of thanks.

http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1024.html

A True Hero

My good friend, Laura, has a brother who is serving in Iraq. He is a true hero. This is his 2nd tour in Iraq. The below correspondence was emailed to Laura from someone from Coast Electric that sent her brother an email thanking him on Veteran's Day. To their surprise he responded by phone and email.


This is what transcribed...
I had the nicest surprise of my life when I received a phone call today from Major Bryan Olier (son of Rene Olier) from Iraq. I was speechless. I can't believe he took the time to call me to thank me for the Veteran's Day email when it's I -- us-- that should be thanking him and all of our other military heroes.

Please see Bryan's message to us all below.

-----Original Message-----
From: Olier, David B MAJ 1-155th CAB 1-155th CAB MAJ
[mailto:david.olier@iraq.centcom.mil]
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 4:41 PM
To: Rene Olier

subject: "Thank You!" (UNCLASSIFIED)
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

I am Major Bryan Olier, currently serving in Iraq. Today is Veterans Day and there is no place in the World that I would rather be. The men and women currently serving our Nation truly know the price of freedom and more so the families back home. As I told Ms. xxxxxx tonight on the phone that we appreciate the kind words and the prayers. With this being my second tour, I personally find the news misleading and presenting to the Nation a picture of gloom and doom. If I could tell
you from the front lines here in Iraq, the war is not here. Nor is the War in Afghanistan. The real war is back home! The real fight is to get the American people to know the Decisive Effort (Military Terminology) is in our homes, around the supper table, in our schools and places of work. The fight that I as a child never had to worry about! My Dad, always taught me to "work hard" and "your word is your bond" and "you can be called many bad things, but never let another man call you lazy" and "never settle for the standard, always raise the bar." These are the fights we must as Americans put back in our everyday conversations. With this type of offense! We build a strong defense to our Communities, tate, and our Nation.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! On behalf of the thousands of men and women, we "Thank you!" for staying in the fight!

Major Bryan Olier

My New Blog

It may come as a surprise to some, (especially the peeps who went to school with me!haha) but I am a history buff. Especially WWII history. I first became interested in WWII because my Papaw was a war hero and I was looking up facts for my Dad for his Father's Day gift. I discovered what a true war hero he really was. I mean, I always knew that he had gotten a lot of medals, won a purple heart, he even got his arm shot off in combat! But I never really appreciated how brave he was. It actually put my life in perspective, whenever I would let little things get me down...everyday life seemed so minute and mundane when you compare it to what they all went thru. Which brings me this post...I think we sometimes forget, or don't realize just what the men and women in our military are doing for us. Our veterans from the past and present, all the way to our military fighting for our freedom today. I am as guilty as everybody else, but I have decided to do something about it. At least for my own self. I have so many friends whose spouses are deployed, or have friends and family members who are. This is my tribute to them.

I have decided to start a blog in honor of all our soldiers past, present and future. With permission, I would like to post pictures and stories about some of our loved ones. I'll also post stories and pictures of my papaw and his expeirences during WWII. This is not a format for debating politics, or whether you are for or against our war. The fact is we ARE at war, and I support all of our soldiers and appreciate them for risking their lives every day so that we can live our normal day to day life.

It makes my stomach hurt everytime the news comes on and reports more deaths in Afganistan or Iraq. It makes me feel bad that I'm at home worring about doing laundry and picking up kids from school when we literally have fathers, sons, daughters, mothers, dying for us. So this is a celebration to them.

I would like to share heroic stories about our brave soldiers. I invite anyone to share with me any stories or articles that you think might make a good post. Thanks yall! And GOD BLESS THE USA!!!