Stories tagged with: world war i

• Southern Baptists honor Pearl Harbor survivor

  by Todd Deaton, posted Thursday, June 16, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  ST. LOUIS (BP) -- World War II veteran Bill McAnany, one of 2,000 living survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was introduced to the Southern Baptist Convention as messengers honored America and recognized military veterans June 14 at the SBC's annual meeting in St. Louis.

  Calling it an "awesome privilege," SBC President Ronnie Floyd observed that a memory of WWII disappears from American culture every three minutes as those who fought in the global conflict pass into eternity. Read More

• MEMORIAL DAY: Jimmy Connelly's greatest honor

  by Jim Burton, posted Friday, May 27, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo

  ST. GEORGE, S.C. (BP) -- An estimated 3.6 million Americans fought in the Pacific Theatre in World War II, overcoming brutal encounters on island after island against Japanese soldiers burrowed into the hillsides.

  The late Jimmy Connelly was one of those Americans.

  The Navy made Connelly chief of a troop-landing Higgins Craft during the massive amphibious assaults at the outset of the Allies' first major Pacific offensive against the Japanese -- Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

  Each craft could ferry up to 36 Marines, and when they stormed the beaches, Connelly operated a 7.62mm belt-fed machine gun to provide cover. On his 10th trip to transport troops into the Solomon Islands battle zone, he also was carrying several hundred five-gallon cans of gasoline. When a mortar round struck their craft, shrapnel pierced his neck and arm, and his pants were set afire, propelling him into the ocean. Read More

• VETERANS DAY: Iwo Jima: young Marine's faith endured

  by Neisha Roberts/The Alabama Baptist, posted Wednesday, November 11, 2015 (8 years ago)

  

  Photo by Neisha Roberts

  BLOUNT SPRINGS, Ala. (BP) -- Horace Lee was 12 when he "gave my heart to the Lord" at a Baptist church in Alabama; 17 when he entered the Marine Corps in 1940; and 21 when he was wounded in Iwo Jima as the U.S. wrested the strategic island from the Japanese.

  "God taught me a great deal" in the military, Lee, now 91, said. "The Marine Corps complemented God's work by their fellowship … because it's teamwork and fellowship, and if you don't have that then you cannot depend on that fellow behind you.... Read More

• Veterans befriend pastor after losing his father

  by Jim Burton, posted Thursday, July 02, 2015 (9 years ago)

  

  When Tommy Kelly was 23, his life was turned upside down when his father died from a heart attack.

  A faithful Christian, his father had been a deacon and church treasurer and was the local magistrate. Kelly got a kick from hearing local lawyers, who had far more education than his father, refer to him as “judge.”

  And Thomas H. Kelly Sr. was patriotic, having served in the Army right after the Korean War. Read More

• WWII POW's pitch opens K.C. Royals' season

  by Brian Koonce, posted Thursday, July 02, 2015 (9 years ago)

  

  Photo courtesy of KC Royals

  Dale Mitchell took the mound in front of 40,085 roaring fans for the defending American League Champion Kansas City Royals' home opener against the Chicago White Sox. His cap pulled low, Mitchell cocked his arm and let his pitch fly.

  At age 90, Mitchell had the honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

  A former high school second baseman, Mitchell and a grandson practiced the pitch on Easter and the next day it was Royals' star third baseman Mike Moustakas on the receiving end. Read More

• World War II, 70 years after

  by Erich Bridges, posted Tuesday, May 26, 2015 (9 years ago)

  

  RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- The 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe came and went in May with relatively little fanfare.

  Perhaps the milestone passed quietly because fewer people personally remember the largest armed conflict in human history. The last U.S. president to serve in the military during World War II, George H.W. Bush, now 90, left office more than 20 years ago. Barack Obama wasn't born until 16 years after the war ended. Read More

• WWI truce: 'the most wonderful Christmas'

  by David Roach, posted Tuesday, December 23, 2014 (9 years ago)

  

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- On Christmas Eve 1914, Austrian soldier Leo Spitzl sat in a military fortification opposite hostile British forces. At dusk the usual sounds of gunfire ceased and an enemy soldier called out, "Hey, Red!" -- a reference to Spitzl's hair color -- "Remember me from London?" Read More

• VETERANS DAY: The 'war to end all wars'

  by Jason K. Allen, posted Tuesday, November 11, 2014 (9 years ago)

  At the 100-year mark of World War I's start, Jason Allen addresses its sobering lessons. The "war to end all wars," Allen writes, points to "the fallenness of man, the necessity of confronting evil, and our collective desire for the day when, 'Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war'" (Isaiah 2:4). Read More