E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeGRAY —
The prettiest lady Fred Harvey ever saw — next to his wife, Winnie, of course — was 111 feet tall, weighed 225 tons and was almost as green as the pine needles back home in Georgia.
Her name was Lady Liberty, and it was love at first sight. Fred remembers the date, May 2, 1946, because he had missed her the first time he was in the neighborhood 17 months earlier.
Today is Veterans Day, a day when we salute folks such as Fred Harvey, who served their country with honor. Fred is a World War II veteran and among those we respectfully call “the Greatest Generation.”
In October 1944, he left Camp Shelby in Mississippi on a troop train. He set sail from New York Harbor in the middle of the night, so his eyes could never find the dark outline of the Statue of Liberty, that traditional symbol of American freedom.
When he returned in May 1946 some nine months after the end of the war, he could not get enough of her.
“We were on a victory ship, and they brought all of us out on deck,’’ he said. “They made sure we saw it.’’
Fred is 85 years old, and he and Winnie have been married for 60 of them. He has never really talked about his WWII experiences until recent years.
“I would think about it every day, but I wouldn’t dwell on it,’’ he said. “It’s a lot different when you’re 18 or 19 years old. At the time, I never thought about what might happen tomorrow. When you found yourself in a tight spot, you figured out how to get out of it.’’
He grew up in the shadow of Camp Wheeler in the community of Franklinton in east Bibb County. As a boy, he would dig up bullets from an old firing range at the military camp and shoot them with his slingshot.
He was drafted in August 1943, a month before the start of his senior year at Lanier High in Macon. He attended the first three weeks of class and got to play in a football game at right halfback for the Poets. Then he traded his football uniform for one with brass buttons, courtesy of the U.S. Army.
An ocean away from home, the war was not without its “small world” moments. On Christmas Eve 1944, he boarded a ship in Southampton, England, headed for France.
“While we were going up the gangplank, two ladies from the Red Cross were handing out coffee and doughnuts,’’ he said. “One asked if anybody was from Macon, Ga., and I told her I was. We didn’t have a lot of time to talk. She said she grew up on Hines Terrace. I never found out her name.’’
He spent most of his tour in Europe building bridges and clearing mines across France, Germany and Austria.
When he returned home, he went back to Lanier and got his diploma.
He married Winnie in 1949 at Cross Keys United Methodist, the church he still attends and where he was honored this past Sunday along with other veterans.
Fred worked as a plumber and pipefitter for 40 years before retiring in 1989. It has been said our World War II veterans are dying at a rate of about 1,000 per day.
In another decade or so, there may only be a handful left.
So I wish to extend a special word of gratitude to Fred and others who have seen that grand lady in the harbor — the Statue of Liberty — and never forgotten why she is still there.
Reach Gris at 744-4275 or gris@macon.com
@Nyx.CommentBody@