Posted on 05/31/2005 12:49:51 PM PDT by BenLurkin
LANCASTER - At Lancaster Cemetery, William Dawson Stephens was showing off his new Marine Corps dress blue uniform and his new "high and tight" haircut. Last year, a huge turnout showed up at Stephens' church to observe his 80th birthday. On this Memorial Day, he was celebrating the arrival of his "dress blues," a uniform he somehow had never managed to acquire during his service on Guadalcanal and in the Korean War.
"It only took 63 years to get here," he joked. Then he removed his ceremonial white "cover," the Marine Corps dress cap, and showed how he'd been to the barber.
"I had to respect the uniform," he said.
Stephens joined former Lancaster Mayor Barbara Little, Lancaster Vice Mayor Henry Hearns and Billyejo Johnson , regent for the Daughters of the American Revolution, at the cemetery to observe the day America sets aside for its fallen warriors.
"I joined the Marine Corps on my 18th birthday," Stephens recalled.
It was just last year that his grandchildren chipped in to help him get that set of "dress blues." To honor the uniform, Stephens, of Marine Corps League Detachment 930, also lost 55 pounds so he would fit into the suit at fighting weight.
Speaking for the DAR, Johnson recalled that the Sons of Liberty, the original Revolutionary War patriots, often had to fight without uniforms, and sometimes clothed only in blankets. To honor that service, Johnson told the 100 or so gathered at the cemetery, Martha Washington hosted parties the guests could only attend wearing blankets like the patriots they supported.
Hearns, a Korean War veteran, told those gathered that he was born on a plantation, a sharecropper's son, and that his service was late in the Korean War because the farmers and sons of farmers were called last.
"America, with all its inequities, there is not another country like it," said Hearns, bishop of First Missionary Baptist Church in Littlerock.
"We have a country where we can march, we can protest, we can stand together like Martin Luther King, and we are able to do that, but for these," he said pointing to the gravestones of veterans.
"We are able to do these things … but for these, and for those," he said pointing to veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and all those serving in conflicts.
"This is one country that is one nation under God," the preacher said. "I am proud to be an American. I am proud to be a member of this community."
"ALL DRESSED UP - Marine Staff Sgt. William Dawson Stephens speaks to the crowd about his new uniform during Memorial Day services Monday at Lancaster Cemetery. Stephens, 80, finally got his "dress blues" 63 years after his service on Guadalcanal and in the Korean War." BERNARD KANE/Valley Press
My old uniforms must have shrunk all those years hanging in the attic....
Was this posted originally to chat? If not, then I think this should have stayed on the News forum. If so, then it should be moved, because it's a wonderful story.
But great article just the same, good grand kids.
It was my call to post this to chat.
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