H. Thomas Hayden was formerly the President and CEO of First Communications Company (FCC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a joint venture between Raytheon and a Saudi Company involved in Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) Systems for the Ministry of Defense and Aviation, Saudi Arabian National Guard and Ministry of Interior. Before retiring from the US Marine Corps, assignments included Commanding Officer (CO), Headquarters and Service Bn, 1st Force Service Support Group, which deployed to the Gulf War, CO Brigade Service Support Group – 9, which deployed to Somalia and CO MAU Service Support Group – 33, which deployed to The Philippines and Korea. He was Branch Head, Headquarters Marine Corps, Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC), and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for SO/LIC with assignments to Central America. He has participated in combat operations or contingency operations in the Republic of Vietnam, Central America, Gulf War, Somalia, and Columbia. Tom has a MBA, MA in International Relations, and a PhD candidate in Business Management. He is the author of two books and is currently writing a third: SHADOW WAR: Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict; WARFIGHTING: Maneuver Warfare in the US Marine Corps. He has published over 40 articles and has been awarded the Navy League’s Alfred Thayer Mahan award for literary achievement.
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Last Saturday, I decided to go visit the new World War II Memorial before its official opening this coming Memorial Day. I went to honor my Dad, who went ashore at Normandy in a tank at D+18, and my uncle, Sergeant Major Maurice E. Seely, US Army (Ret).
My Dad, Major Quentin J. Hayden, US Army (Ret), joined the Army off the farm in Kentucky, to ride horses - they stuck him in a tank. After Normandy he served as a Recon Tank Platoon Commander through the Battle of the Bulge, where Master Sergeant Hayden earned a Silver Star and a battlefield commission, and on into Germany.
My Dad died a few years ago in Parhump, NV, while I was on a Marine Corps exercise. I did make it for the funeral and arranged full military honors from the Air Force at Nellis Air Force Base. We buried my Dad next to two of my brothers, one who died in Vietnam and another who died in a parachute airplane crash in California. There are three of us left - all Vietnam vets (one Marine, one Navy and one Army).
Sergeant Major Seely was the last one alive of my many aunts and uncles who joined up for WW II. My aunt, Dorothy Seely, had died ten months earlier.
Sergeant Major Seely first saw action with the Big Red 1, 1st Infantry Division, in North Africa, and then Sicily where he had had enough of the infantry so he joined the Army Air Corps. On his sixth mission over Germany, his B-17 was shot to pieces and had to crash land in England. He spent almost one year in a hospital, but as soon as he got out, he went back to the Big Red 1 in Germany. He later saw action in Korea and Vietnam. He had two stars on his Combat Infantryman's Badge (CIB).
When I came back from my second tour in Vietnam, I of course went to visit him and my aunt in Oklahoma. I enjoyed swapping stories with SgtMaj Seely. We never talked about the bad stuff, only the funny things that happened to us, such as when he was going for beer for his buddies and a mortar attack hit Di An, home of the Big Red 1 in Vietnam. He was faithful to his mission; however, running to the bunker with two six packs under his arms, he busted both his elbows trying to go through the bunker door.
I was going to call Sergeant Major Seely Sunday evening to tell him about the Memorial, and hoped he could come visit us in Virginia, and I would take him to the WW II, Korea and Vietnam Memorials.
My cousin, Terry, his only daughter, called me Sunday evening to tell me that Sergeant Major Seely had passed away. I always called him Sergeant Major - he liked that. He called me colonel - I liked it too, coming from him.
I spent most of Tuesday in the Pentagon uniform shop, looking for new ribbons and badges for his uniform for his burial. There was no CIB with two stars to be found (I had retired from the Marine Corps in 1996, but now work in the Pentagon). Fortunately, Terry found a CIB with two stars and I put together his seven rows of ribbons on new mountings and Fed-Exed them to Terry.
I do not do funerals very well so I will have to hear about it later. Soldiers from Ft Sill, Oklahoma, will do the honors.
For my visit to the World War II Memorial, I parked next to the State Department, where I had one tour of duty, and walked to the "mall." I walked around the Vietnam memorial -- one visit was enough and I do not care to walk that walk again. I went over to the flag pole where only one brass plaque is bright and shinny. There are five plaques on a mound below the flagpole -- once a week, Marines from 8th and "I" will march over and shine the Marine Corps emblem. No other Service does that.
I walked past the Vietnam "three soldier statute," then past the woman's Vietnam Memorial statue of the nurses trying to protect a wounded soldier or Marine from the MedEvac helicopter downwash. Then I walked past the Korean Memorial. At each spot I thought of my Dad and SgtMaj Seely.
As soon as I walked over to the Reflecting Pool and looked toward the George Washington Monument, I could see the magnificent WW II Memorial in the distance.
When I arrived, I walked around the beautiful and very fitting Memorial. It is a large oval monument with a large pool of water in the center surrounded by a walkway with pillars for the 56 states, territories and Washington, D.C. There are two "pavilions" at each end, one for the Atlantic and one for the Pacific. They are called "Arsenals of Democracy." There are wreaths of oak and wheat above the spaces at each of the memorial's pillars, symbolizing the nation's industrial and agricultural strength, both of which have four huge eagles holding wreaths in suspension by ribbons.
They have already started doing what people do at the Vietnam Memorial - leaving personal mementos at a particular state. Someone had left a bouquet of flowers, a photo of a young couple with the man in an Army uniform, circa 1940s, and a small Texas flag. Of course the picture was yellow from age, but still a beautiful sight to behold.
I knew I could not make the full circle without tears. It really hit me when I saw the 4,000 gold stars representing one star to commemorate the more than 400,000 Americans who lost their lives in WW II.
According to the brochure I picked up at the kiosk, "The memorial celebrates a generation of Americans who emerged from the Depression to fight and win the most devastating war in world history. Americans and their allies triumphed over tyranny."
There are statements from many people, mostly presidents and military leaders, carved into the walls. I liked the one by President Harry Truman: "Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices."
Someone wrote in a newspaper advertisement: "Together, they fought for freedom. Together, they prevailed. Together, they inspired us all. With their courage, commitment and dedication. Together, we honor America's 16 million World War II veterans. Together, we will remember them. Always."
I will remember my Dad and Sergeant Major Maurice E. Seely, US Army (ret) - always.
