Previously published in Blount and Beyond May 2020 Edition
Last Look
by Christy Stephens Martin
It was a murky grey day in Newbury, England in May of 1944 as the young American soldier walked thru the township. The air smelt of wet smoke and the constant dampness overwhelmed the sweetness of the spring season. It seemed to Charles Stephens that it was grey every day and raining, constantly raining. He missed the sunshine, green hills, farmland, and mountains of East Tennessee. In her last letter his Mama had said that the crop planting was going to be difficult again this year with both Charles and his older brother Horace serving on active duty. Farming was difficult back breaking work at best but without them and other young men in the community it was extra hard for everyone.
Charles smiled to himself as he thought about his horse Dan and the camping trips they took after spring planting to Butterfly Gap in the foothills of the Smokies. Charles had met a lot of interesting people on those camping trips and many were doing the same thing he was....panning for gold. Local rumors indicated that there was a main vein of gold in the Smokies but all Charles ever got was a goose quiver full of gold barely bigger than dust. It was enough to whet his curiosity and cause him to make the trip several times a year. But it wasn't just the gold. Charles loved the hills, walking and riding Dan thru the valleys and hills of home, the earthy smell of spring and dirt; legs wrapped around Dan's strong warm body and the horsey animal smell of him.
Charles wakened from his thoughts by the whistle of a troop train just coming into the station. The train slowed without stopping and the soldiers filled the windows waving and shouting greetings and generating excitement to the crowd who lined the station's platform. It was mostly young ladies and they were all in love with the American GIs and God knows they should be. Something big was brewing. He did not know exactly what was happening but he knew soon he and his other teammates of the 101st Airborne Pathfinders were to begin specialized training and would be locked on the base until their mission started. There were American GIs everywhere...more than he had seen even in the states. They were directly across the channel from France and invasion seemed to loom. The young soldier felt ready, with faith in God, his training and in his fellow citizen soldiers.
"Hey Charlie" came a familiar voice, breathless and excited.
It was his brother Horace! Charles ran beside the train exchanging words, brief and loud enough to be heard above the train.
Trying to be heard above the train, Horace shouted, "How are you doing? Who are you with? Heard from Mama and Daddy?"
Charles's response equally brief, "Doing well brother. (I am) with the 101st. Parachute jumper. Light machine gunner...all that rabbit huntin' made me pretty good at the shooting...gonna kill me some Germans. Mail but not regular...how bout you?"
"Armored artillery...still with Bernie (Horace's best friend who had joined with him) Can't wait for the folks to hear about this!!"
By then the train was too far and fast for more and Charles waved goodbye to his older brother, barely believing what he had just experienced. He would experience much more. There were tough times ahead for the soon to be tested soldier.
The days that followed made history as the Americans and their allies mounted the largest invasion the world had ever seen. It was the beginning of a successful but deadly attempt to defeat Hitler's army.
June 6 of 1944 Charles Stephens and his 101st Airborne Pathfinder teammates were the first of the allied forces dropped on the Normandy coast just after midnight. Their job was to blow up and secure the bridges and locks around Carentan, France. Though circumstances were difficult they accomplished this by daybreak. As the day wore on and the magnitude of this battle became evident from the ships, the soldiers, and air attacks Charles, about 1/2 mile inland, wondered about his brother Horace and other friends and family.
The year ahead held daily and hourly challenges for the young soldier. He participated in the long and bloody job of taking town after town in France and in the major battle for St. Lo., France, losing his best friend and ammo carrier in that battle. Teammates had become brothers constantly facing life and death together but forced to go on and save the grief for later.
In September of 1944 Charles donned his parachute for his final jump into Holland and he and his entire company were either killed or taken prisoner by the Germany Army in a bloody allied loss know as "Operation Market Garden".
Charles Stephens was liberated by American forces from a POW camp in Mooseberg, Germany in April 1945 and traveled with the US Army as they liberated other prisoners from Germany to Turkey. Finally, a year after D-Day, he made it to East Tennessee. As he got off the bus for the walk down the hill to his family's farm in the valley, he soaked in the sunshine and smell of the East Tennessee he loved, while thinking about the extensive sacrifice of the young men in this war. Most days he had never thought he would make it back home. As he walked up to the farm house where he was born he felt a lump in his throat and a mist in his eyes.
During the war families with a member in service displayed a blue star next to a picture of each person serving. Charles's eyes began to shed tears as he saw the one blue star next to his picture....and a gold star accompanying the picture of Horace. Horace would never make it home.
Charles and his family later found out that 31 year old Horace and his best friend, Bernard Keller who had joined the Army together in 1941 and were part of the 4th Division Armored Cavalry were killed together on June 6, 1944 along with 37 others just off Utah beach when their landing craft was sunk by a mine. They never made it to shore. Their bodies were never recovered, buried forever in the cold depths of the English Channel.
In the months and years after Charles return to East Tennessee he walked the hills of the family farm mourning the death of Horace and many other friends. He relived the last hurried words with his brother and found solace and some healing in the warmth of the sunshine on his face, the smell of life giving soil, the feel of Dan's back, and hard work. He treasured the innocence of the prewar years in his beautiful home and found healing in the beauty of God's creations in the quiet vista of the East Tennessee Appalachian hills.