I Remember...
Edmonds veteran, Boyce Clark knows the meaning of sacrifice.
Wartime in 2003, it means nonstop news on cable TV. It means people fretting about flying off to exotic vacation spots. It means a stock market roller-coaster ride. If we’re honest, to those of us without loved ones in the military, wartime means inconvenience. It means heightened feelings of patriotism or anxiety, or both.
But in 2003, as we go about our business of working, picking up the kids and going to the mall, we don’t have a sense of wartime meaning sacrifice.
Sacrifice. That’s not an easy word for people too young to remember the home front during previous wars.
Boyce Clark remembers.
His life is a lesson in wartime sacrifice, a reminder of what can be endured and what can be lost on the waging of war. The 76-year-old Edmonds man, a tired Marine is reminded of sacrifice every morning when he gets dressed.
“I was in combat, I was wounded twice in Korea. That’s where I lost my arm, in Korea.” Clark said Wednesday.
His generation came of age within the confines of wartime sacrifice. When World War II began, he was a teenager attending boys boarding school in the Kent Valley.
“We were in the library when the news came that Pearl Harbor had been bombed,” Clark said. By 1942, gasoline was being rationed, automakers had quit building new cars, and a food stamp program had been announced. In 1943, rationing coupons were distributed and Americans at home had to make to with limited supplies of gas, meat, sugar, butter and even shoes.
Here on the West Coast there were evening blackouts, when blackout screens were required to cover their windows.
During high school in Seattle, Clark remembers collecting old newspapers and pots and pans for salvage materials to be used in the War effort.
Clark’s older brother Boyd joined the Navy in 1942 and was assigned to a destroyer.
“We had a blue star in the window, showing we had a service member in the family,” he said.
In 1945, Clark joined the Marine Corps and served until 1948. In 1950, just months after marrying he was called back for the Korean War. He was a leader in an infantry squad in Easy Co. of the 7th Marine Regiment.
“In June of 1951, we were advancing up a hill, and Chinese mortars hit us,” Clark said. They killed five or six people and wounded seven or eight. I lost my arm due to shrapnel. I ended up on a Navy hospital ship, the Haven.
“That’s where they actually took my arm off, it was June 5.” He said as if it were yesterday.
After the Korean War, Clark got an education and worked for the state. He and his wife, Charlotte raised three children. He agrees that in 2003 the notion of sacrifice is foreign for many Americans.
“Unless it hits close to home, life goes on as usual. You’ll go out and get your pizza or go to that movie tonight,” he said. “But my heart goes out to those people sitting in harm’s way right now, I tell you.”
And in war, he said, “You’re never certain what’s going to take place, you never know.”
“That’s what those kids are going through now.” Clark said, “My hat goes off to them. They’re in harm’s way, and they’re going to be a target for somebody.”
Wartime 2003? We can always switch off the TV.
We should never forget the thousand of Americans who are there, who can’t turn it off, who are making a huge sacrifice.
Columnist Julie Muhistein:
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