The hillbilly campaigns, like most things Appalachian, are underappreciated in histories of the American Revolution. They really mattered. King's Mountain really really mattered, and Cow Pens [or Cowpens] was not insignificant. I had kin there, and at Eutaw Springs. I don't know about King's Mountain, but I wouldn't be surprised. Read here about Cow Pens. So I pay homage to Thomas Ponder, a Continental soldier who was there.
And equal homage to my uncle, Russell Ponder, U.S. Army Air Corps, who covered a lot of ground in WWII. He was always my hero, though he was never the hero in the war stories he told. Those stories were mostly funny or poignant.
And honor to my neighbor, who was at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 and is the man I hope to be when I grow up.
And to my wife's uncle, Vernon Vaughn, who was not only at Pearl Harbor, but who had a ship sunk from under him, and then was at Bikini Atoll during the A-tests. He had a drink today with the boys at the VFW, bless him.
The News Hour ran twenty pictures this evening of dead soldiers from our Mid-Eastern adventures. It just breaks your heart to see those young guys, all alive and full of possibilities in their photos and now dead and gone.
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