April 11th

Nice morning but  5C.
Off to the bowling green this am, we are coring the green thyen all the cores have to be sraped and picked up and the holes filled with sand.
Here is another story that will probably be in 2 units.

If you read the story of the Pearce family some time ago, this is the second half of the book.

Dedicated to

 Master Sergeant Roy Stewart Harvey

(My Uncle Roy)

His Battles Are Over

INTRODUCTION

This is the story of my Uncle Roy, a career soldier who joined the United States army in 1938. The last time I ever saw him was a few months after I became a three year old and it wasn’t until my late ‘teens and into my twenty’s that he and I exchanged letters spasmodically.

When I was young he became a hero figure for me, in part for the heroic deeds that he performed, but also for the appeal of ‘leading a soldier’s life’. As I grew up a change occurred from my boyhood idealism and somehow over time and distance he invoked in me a passion to know him better and eventually to be a friend and confidant.

I don’t, of course, know all of his story but I have taken the liberty of using my imagination and some ‘reading between the lines’ from the letters we exchanged so long ago. It may have been better to have attempted this history when I was much younger and before his death but on reflection perhaps some of my idealism may have skewed the words and it is only in these last few years have I woken to an urgency to write.

Unfortunately dates and the correct order of all events may not always be entirely accurate, but the heart of the story is as good as memory allows.

So, this is his story as he may have related it to me if we had ever had the opportunity to sit down together.

John Little

January 2010

1

N

ot that it’s necessarily important but for the record I was born April 1919 in Sacramento California. Neither Ma or Pa actually ever said, but I think I was born at home on our farm. I don’t think it was the same farm that we lived on when I was seven or eight.  I know that next one was pretty much a stump ranch, but me, my brother and two sisters had a lot of fun there even though we were dirt poor.

  All us kids took after Ma and never got very tall. That was specially tough for me cause I was kinda cute and the girls all liked me so I got teased a lot. I had a bit of a temper back then so had to learn how to use what size I had to ease the teasing. We moved a couple times then finally settled in Eureka. It was a nice little town in those days, still small enough so that most everyone knew each other. Pa started carpentering and money got a bit better. Me and my brother, Ernie were best friends for a long time but after he got to be sixteen or seventeen (he was two years older than me) he started hanging out with older guys and when my sister Violet got this boy friend and brought him around, Ernie and him hung together and left me out of most things.

  But all in all things weren’t too bad. My oldest sister, Erma sort of let me down, when we were younger she used to take me everywhere but from the time she got to be a teenager she really liked the boys and I became a ‘nuisance’ she used to say! I guess that’s the way it is in families, I was the youngest and they all fussed over me but when they got older I had to find my own way.

  I didn’t actually finish high school, I wasn’t much into studying and played hooky a lot. I don’t think Pa cared so much ‘cause he figured that as long as a man worked hard he’d be okay, but Ma used to whip me every time I got reported. I will say that Violet would stick up for me and in spite of her beau she would most always find time to spend with me and would try and stick up for me with Ma.

  I finally quit school when I was seventeen and was a year behind; my brother Ernie and Violet’s now husband John, were both working in a logging camp and they got me a job. Man that work was so tough I almost went back to school, but I stuck it out and for the first time I had a bit of spending money.          The summer and fall wasn’t so bad but as we were up in the mountains there was snow when winter came. Because of my size (I was five foot six) the boss started out thinking I couldn’t keep up with the other men and I always felt I had to work harder and faster than the others. I think after a few months he saw that I weren’t no quitter and he lightened up on me.

  Spring was just comin’ on in 1938 and one Saturday there was an Army recruitin’ team set up downtown, we had a couple extra days off because of Easter, Ernie had gone to John and Violet’s place at Crescent City and I was on my own so just for the Hell of it I thought I’d go and see what it was all about.

  A couple hours later I was convinced that the army life was for me. The only problem was it was just a couple days before my birthday and I was going to have to get my parents to sign a consent form. I explained this to the recruiting sergeant and the fact that my Ma’d probably tear up the paper.

  “No problem son. You should never rush into anything this important, so you just think on it for a couple days. But while you’re thinking just remember we need men like you.” Then he gave me a big wink, “And don’t forget when the girlies see you in uniform you’ll only have to crook your finger at ‘em.”

  Two days later I was back and I was in the army!

  Of course I had to go home and tell my folks, but I had a week before I had to report for induction and basic training so I sort of put it off. Then as luck would have it Ma decided to have everybody for dinner the next Saturday; I figured that  would work out so I’d only have to say it once and with everyone there, Ma would probably hold back a bit.

 

  When everyone was about halfway through dinner and Ma was fussing with Violet’s three year old, I cleared my throat but still only managed to squeak out, “Thought everyone should know, I joined the army. I’m leaving on Monday.”

  Squeaky voice or not they all went silent. Ma’s face started to go red and she shoved the baby at Violet and started to stand up. But before she could say anything Pa jumped to his feet and grabbed me by my shoulders and said, “You did? Good for you boy! Hear that Dolly, our youngest is goin’ to be an Army man.” As he spoke he looked over my head towards Ma, there was a hard look in his eye and Ma never said a word.

  There was quite a hullabaloo for a while, everyone talking at once, hand shaking hugs – all that stuff.  When it all simmered down a bit, Ma kind of got in front of me; her eyes were shiny she looked at me for a long moment then said, “You just be careful, Roy Stewart Harvey, you come home every chance you get and you write to us, we’ll all be here when your hitch is up.” She leaned forward and pecked me on the cheek. She turned away real fast like and went out into the other room.

  Well Erma and Violet cried a bit, there were more hugs and stuff then Pa said, “I think we better have a bit of a toast to celebrate.” He crossed to the sink and brought out a jug of corn whiskey. He poured four small glasses and I drank the first and only drink I ever had with my father.