LAC News
Honoring Our Veterans ... My Papaw and the Cost of Freedom
By Marian L. Ward
November 2008

My grandfather, Roy Collins — we called him “Papaw” — would’ve turned 100 this month.  On Veterans Day, his is the first image that comes to mind.  To me, he was the quintessential American soldier and personification of the “Greatest Generation.”

He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and would have done it all over again if his country needed him.  My grandmother was no stranger to the war effort herself.  She once remarked to me, “I was Rosie the Riveter.”

Papaw Roy knew the value of good, old-fashioned hard work.  Even into his eighties, I saw this man literally throw hay bales onto a flatbed trailer.  (I had the esteemed privilege of driving the tractor a couple of times during haybalin’ time in the late Arkansas summer).

To this day, I can hardly remember very many things he said.  He didn’t say much out loud anyway.  The life he lived and his reputation in the community, however, spoke volumes. 

When my mom and aunt were living at home, my grandparents had a grocery store.  He was known to often leave bags of groceries on the doorsteps of needy families in the community.  I think he drove my grandmother crazy because of all the accounts he neglected to collect.

Besides a few occasions in his last months of life, I can’t remember him discussing Scripture or God really.  He was hard of hearing and well into his seventies before I came along.  I never saw anyone who truly knew how to love his neighbor like my grandfather, though.  His sense of duty to God, family and country was almost tangible.

I was only 18 when he passed away.  My mom (Marjorie Collins Ward), however is able to recall more:

“When I think of Veteran’s Day, my mind goes back to my father, Roy Collins.  He was a simple farmer, the oldest boy of 13 children, born in Lincoln County, Arkansas.  He helped run the farm and raise his siblings.  I guess you could say that he was the leader of the clan.  He went off to basic training like so many others, but because of his age (he was born in 1908), he was being sent home… until December 7, 1941—Pearl Harbor.  He was called back up before he had a chance to get home or have my mom join him in California to begin their new life together. 

He was an ambulance driver who served in the Philippines.  I’m sure that his many years of caring for his siblings helped, but it was his courage and character that made him the man and the soldier that he was.  He received a Bronze Star for rescuing wounded soldiers from behind enemy lines.  One of his ambulances was blown up, but he didn’t get a scratch.  He did, however, develop a pretty bad case of malaria shortly after he returned home after the war. 

He never said much about his time in the war, but we knew that it was not the kind of memories one likes to hold on to.  Near the end of his life, at the age of 90, he began remembering and talking about the war.  He spoke of wounded men he treated, enemy soldiers he saw die, and the nightmares that followed.  He developed dementia near the end, but he told me that it was the old memories that were giving him the most problems.  All I know is that he and so many others like him saw things that they would rather forget, but remembered the buddies that helped them all get through it. 

Veteran’s Day, or Flag Day as I remember him calling it, was always celebrated in our small community.  They tried hard not to forget the cost of their freedom and ours.   Some of us who never had to walk down that path may have a tendency to take our liberty for granted, but not the veterans.  Though they tried to forget the pain and death, they never forgot the cost of freedom.”

I don’t think I could say it better, Mom.  I highly value the opportunity to know and honor many that have served.  They know better than any of us what it costs to be free.  They make our communities better and bring us “up” as a nation.

If you get the opportunity, thank a veteran today for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make for each of us.  Pray for those currently serving in our military all over the world.  Pray for their families, who also pay a great price for the freedoms we enjoy.