Okinawa

Wolfe Cemetery is a small, very old, carefully maintained, rural cemetery; shaded by ancient oaks, an unused church on it’s southern edge, it is hidden from the view of thousands of motorists who speed past it each day, on U.S. Hwy 231.

The cemetery is in Allen County, a few miles south of Scottsville, Kentucky. I found it by accident when I stopped at a convenience store that now resides on the land between it and the highway.

With a few minutes to spare, I decided to walk though the ancient, long ago hallowed ground. I started down the graveled entrance road that leads to the church. As I walked I realized that somewhere in the distance I heard Amazing Grace being sung, too slowly, by a small group of people. I stopped looked toward the dark building; there was no sign of life there. I turned toward the cemetery; there was no one there either. That didn’t stop the choir though, so I shook my head and walked on toward the graves, the words of the hymn, penned by John Newton, a reformed slave ship captain, rolling through my head:

Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.

In the northeast corner I walked among the oldest graves, most of their headstones so worn by time and weather as to be unreadable. At the northern edge of the cemetery I turned back toward the highway on a little used service road that runs around the edge of the property.

The headstones were newer there, though still not new, most of them dating back to the 40’s and 50’s. The new ones marked the graves of spouses who had joined mates who departed earlier. I looked at my watch, realized it was time to go, and headed purposefully toward the end of the road and my car. That’s when I saw a new, white granite headstone, and I knew my appointment would have to wait.

I stood in front of the white stone and began reading the words carved there:

7^th Division

PFC Lloyd L. O’Neal

5-16-21 4-19-44

“Lost his life in the heroic defense of Okinawa Island”

Sixty-five years later, someone remembered Lloyd and cared enough to put up this new headstone. Not only did they remember him; they had a photo of him affixed to the headstone at the top center. I bent closer and examined the picture; Lloyd O’Neal was Matthew McConaughey’s twin. I did a double take and looked again to confirm it; yep, Lloyd looked just like the male lead of Sahara, We Are Marshall, Failure to Launch, and many other hit movies.

I couldn’t shake Lloyd from my mind, so when I got home I did some research and found that it is almost 7,500 miles from Allen County, Kentucky to the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa, Japan – the site of the last major battle of WW II. The battle began late in March and lasted 82 days.

More than 100,000 Japanese troops were lost, along with hundreds of thousand civilians and over 50,000 Allied troops, including Lloyd O’Neal, who died less than a month before his 23^rd birthday.

The biggest trouble Matthew McConaughey has found him self in, as far as his fans know, occurred in 1999 when he was arrested for disturbing the peace; specifically for playing the bongos, in his own home, while naked. Matthew was 28 years old at the time.

The biggest trouble that 22 year-old Lloyd O’Neal ever faced took his life, 7,500 miles away from home, in a pitched battle for a piece of real estate that the Allies believed to be the key to the defeat of Japan, since it is located only 340 miles from the mainland.

The fighting on Okinawa ended six weeks after Lloyd O’Neal died. The Japanese were beaten although they had not yet surrendered. It was obvious to everyone who understood political and military power that Japan could no longer mount an offensive military action anywhere in the world. In spite of that, the U.S. dropped two atom bombs on the Japanese just weeks after the fighting ended on Okinawa.

Today, over sixty years later, Japan is our number one trading partner and a powerful ally in world politics and today we are fighting two new major wars with no prospect in sight for their end. Before we initiated those two wars we fought in Korea and Vietnam and other less noteworthy places.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides have died, with nothing to show for their lives; no peace has been won. Wars are initiated by politicians for money and for the support of the people they govern. Wars begin when politicians fail to gain money and support through their conventional, day-to-day maneuverings.

In three hundred years, in various wars, the United States has taken the lives of millions of people, both theirs and ours, along with property, natural resources, and the possibility of a peaceful future for the world.

Isn’t it time to turn the most expensive government that has ever existed back toward its stated objective as noted in the Declaration of Independence?

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Isn’t it time to give the Lloyd O'Neal's of the world a chance to live; to be movie stars, or doctors, or even politicians; or maybe drunks and losers; or just common, ordinary, everyday husbands, fathers, grandfathers….?

Isn’t it time?