Saturday, January 22, 2011

Orie McClanahan

When I called my father tonight, he mentioned that Orie McClanahan died earlier this week. Orie was named after my grandfather Orie Jacob Smith. When my father Ben was called to serve in the Pacific Theater shortly after Pearl Harbor, Orie McClanahan helped my grandfather farm until he too was called to serve.

Never met Orie McClanahan, or if I did, I didn't know. Spent many years away, and now work as an engineer in Silicon Valley. However, when returning to visit, always attend Church of God Holiness. Looking at his picture tonight in the Daily Express, believe he was one of those kind gentlemen who welcomed me on Sunday mornings.

Three impressive years of service, apparently as a medic in the "301st Infantry, 94th Division, serving in the European African-Middle Eastern Theater, including France, Germany and Czechoslovakia." But more impressive: four bronze stars! Couldn't help but think of a verse:

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his live for his friends" (John 15:13).

Saturday, January 1, 2011