Memorial Day is about more than drinking beer around a backyard grill, riding in baskets hanging beneath hot air balloons or watching muscular women sling heavy weights across a grassy university field. It is about honoring the memory of those Americans who have sacrificed their lives so that their fellow Americans may remain free. May their sacrifices never be minimized nor forgotten!
I was pleasantly surprised to see a brief report on Fox News last Saturday that brought back memories of one of my favorite experiences involving a tribute to those who sacrificed. Some of us who have been around for a long time have by the blessings of an all-powerful God experienced history in the making. This writer has been blessed with more than my share of such experiences.
Fox News reported that the surviving POWs brought back from Hanoi by President Nixon celebrated their 40th anniversary of freedom recently at the Nixon Library. One of the former POWs commented on the State Dinner held for the returning POW’s at the White House by President Nixon forty years ago. It was the largest State Dinner ever held at the White House before or since and, according to the POWs, was an experience of a lifetime. I was privileged to have had a role in that event.
The POWs had essentially been abandoned by President Johnson and rescued by President Nixon. They loved Richard Nixon. By his persistent actions, they were freed from a tortuous Communist prison. They had cheered when they heard the B-52s showering bombs on Hanoi. That was an encouraging signal that the newly elected Commander-in-Chief had not abandoned them and that help was on the way.
At that time in the early 1970s this writer was assigned to the Army staff in the Pentagon as an action officer and chief of the Food Service Branch of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics. Due to specialized training and experience, I was overseeing the worldwide Army troop-feeding program as we carefully transitioned to an all-volunteer Army that included contracting-out several of the unpopular Army traditions such as KP.
President Nixon had decided he was going to welcome the POWs home with a State Dinner at the White House. They had been away so long, the President insisted that they bring their wife or mother or another important person in their life with them. This created a logistics problem for the White House staff. They could not pack this number of people in the State Dining Room or any other room in the White House for a formal dinner.
The head usher, who supervised the White House staff, suggested that the event be held in one of the elaborate hotel ballrooms in town. Nixon scoffed at the idea. “This is their house. Find a way to do it here.”
Finally the President became impatient. With a touch of sarcasm, Nixon raised his voice: “If you can’t handle this task, call across the river to the Pentagon, there has to be someone in that building who knows how to feed a large group of people." When the President speaks, he expects action.
The phone rang in my small cubicle in the Pentagon. At first I thought it was a prank by a friend. I didn’t know anyone at the White House. In fact, it was the head usher. He told me about his desperate situation and what the President wanted. He had first called the Office of the Secretary of Defense and they said they didn’t have anyone who was qualified to help but that there was an officer on the Army Staff who could probably give some assistance. A series of planning meetings followed at the White House.
We proposed holding the Formal State Dinner in a very large tent on the south lawn. The President approved the plan. Nixon wanted canoes filled with crushed ice to chill the champagne. We got canoes from the Army recreation department. We used Army refrigeration trucks, generators, food warmers and other equipment. Waiters and serving utensils were borrowed from local hotels. The dinner was held during a severe thunderstorm. The tent poles held and everyone remained dry. It was a memorable occasion for the POWs and their guests as well as the First Family.
Several of the POWs have discussed this memorable event in their books and Julie Nixon Eisenhower discussed the event in her book about her mother. It was a blessing to serve a Commander-in-Chief that, despite his failings, protected and demanded the best for his troops.
