ERNEST (RED) HONAKER - HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE. PLEASE READ. From Norvel Davis - My Uncle Ernest served his country in the military his entire life in such a remarkable and distinguished career that I must tell his story. At the outbreak of WWII, Uncle Ernest enlisted in the US Navy, under age with permission of his father, Belville. His older Brother Raymond Kermit had enlisted in the Navy before the outbreak of war and served in the German U-Boat infested waters of the Atlantic. Ernest was sent to the Pacific and served on a battleship and other vessels in the bloody campaigns to retake strategic Islands in the South Pacific and push the Japanese back toward their home island. He received shrapnel wounds and was medically discharged. His desire to serve his country in time of war in some way, prompted him to enlist in the US army. He could have sat out the rest of the war but his patriotism would not let him. In a letter to his sister, Fern Davis (My Mother) he told her he was enlisting in the Army because theyll take anybody. Uncle Ernest finished WWII with the US Army. Staying in the Military, barely 5 years after the end of the war, the Korean War erupted and he was sent to Korea. The US Army along with other United Nations forces began the bloody campaign of pushing the North Korean Army out of South Korea, continuing up the peninsula all the way to the Yalu River, border with China. He was in one of the first Units to reach the Yalu. In a letter to his sister, Fern Davis, he related the news and proud of the campaign said Today I pissed in the Yalu River. Shortly after, disaster struck when the Chinese Communist Army crossed the Yalu River border in overwhelming numbers, forcing a strategic retreat back down the Korean peninsula is some of the bloodiest fighting of the war all the way back into South Korea into a pocket on the east coast. Disaster was Imminent. Relief came when General McArthurs brilliant invasion at Pusan Harbor on the west coast diverted Chinese forces and gave time for resupply and refitting and reinforcements and again go on the offensive, pushing the Chinese and North Korean forces north until a stalemate and armistice at the 38th parallel where it stands today. Ernest remained in the Army during the Vietnam war and ended his overseas service on a Nike Missile base in Germany. He retired to a home in Brunswick, Georgia near his older brother Raymond Kermit Honaker. I didnt get to see Uncle Ernest a lot because of his military service and near the end of his life, I was compelled to travel to Brunswick to see him. Pat and I met Uncle Ernest and his wife Maria for brunch and Ill never forget, on portable oxygen and failing body how alert and sharp he was with his brilliant sparkling blue eyes. On leaving, knowing it would probably the last time I saw him, I hugged him and told him I loved him. So to my Uncle Ernest (Red) Honaker - HONOR TO YOU TO WHOM ALL HONOR IS DUE. REST IN PEACE.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 17:01:30 +0000
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