For the past nine years, the Bella Vista Patriots have hosted the 4th of July Patriot Parade in the Sugar Creek Shopping Center. We do it to celebrate Independence Day, and we do that by honoring our past and present military personnel. This year's parade will begin at 9:30 a.m. with pre-parade entertainment. The parade march will kick off at 10 a.m. Monday.
Each year we select a World War II veteran to be grand marshal. The reason is obvious: Our time is running out to have this opportunity to thank them for literally stepping up to the plate and saving all of us from tyranny. A write-up based on the interview is given to the grandchildren so they will know their story. It is also provided to the World War II archives in Washington, D.C., so it can be found online by anyone.
This year's grand marshal is Maj. George Brannon. In our interview, Brannon said he was 18 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Upon graduation from Tipton (Okla.) High School, he, like other young men his age, was anxious to strike back. He had always wanted to fly, so he volunteered for the Army Air Corps Flight School. Upon graduation from flight school, he wanted to be a combat fighter pilot.
People not familiar with the military sometimes don't realize that it generally takes nine individuals to train, supply and support the one that is in actual combat. The assignment you get is strictly a roll of the dice. Everyone who has ever donned a military uniform recognizes that by putting on the uniform, it is an unofficial agreement that you may one day have to sacrifice your life for the cause of freedom. So it was with Maj. Brannon. He spent his years training others how to fly single-engine fighter planes. The war ended and George's wishes to be an active combat fighter pilot did not materialize during World War II, but he can take comfort in knowing that his instructions to others led to their success in air battles and may have saved many of their lives.
After that war, George stayed in the Army Air Corps. As a pilot of multi-engine aircrafts, he was stationed in Guam. In the Vietnam War, he flew supply missions in and out of Vietnam. Many times after a mission, he said, their planes were riddled with bullet holes.
It is important we leave these chronicles for the grandchildren and future generations, but in the case of Major George Brannon and others of his greatest generation it's also important we try to find the common thread of what made that generation so great. Can we ever capture that again?
I don't know about the individuals coming from the East Coast or the West Coast because we haven't interviewed many of them, but for those who grew up in the Midwest, there are some common childhood traits.
George Brannon, like so many children growing up in the Midwest, was a member of an intact farm family. His father, mother, two sisters and three brothers all had their responsibilities to make the farm survive. This contributed to their adherence to good work ethics. Today, so much of that has gone out the window.
At school, if any of the children got a paddling, the swats taken at school were not of great concern. But, the real hope was that their father never found out about it. That was a paddling to worry about. Today, when a child is reprimanded at school, the child runs home and tells his parents and it can be the principal or the teacher that is in trouble.
Maj. George Brannon is grand marshal not only for his outstanding military service to America, but I personally don't know of anyone who has performed as much volunteer public service as he has. He cut down the first tree to form the Tanyard Creek Trail, he spent years volunteering at Helping Hands, Bella Vista Recycle Center, MOAA and he did more for the Veterans of Foreign Wars than anyone I know.
Our gratitude and congratulations go out to Maj. George Brannon.
Commentary on 07/01/2016