A large body of my father's military newspaper work is currently with Professor Emeritus David Egan of Clemson University. The "ComZ Cadence" was a post WWII U.S. Army newspaper in France. My father, Albert W. Spratley, was the editor.
I've had several long, enjoyable conversations with Prof. Egan, who is writing a book on the Cold War era and is using some of Dad's writing in his research.
In the two years since I sent the newspapers to Prof. Egan to be scanned into a permanent digital copy, I never realized who he was. I grew up at Fort Benning and Columbus, GA. My father was Sgt. Major at the Fort Benning Public Affairs Office, and died there Oct. 11, 1968. He never knew about My Lai, but of course, everyone else who lived there did, when Lt. William Calley was court-martialed there. Don't get me started on how I felt about the commuted sentence or about the failure of my country to do a damned thing to the rest of the monsters at My Lai that day. My blood boils every time I hear the name of that doomed Vietnamese hamlet. I've been angry all these years. I met Calley one time, and could barely contain my loathing. I remember, though, being deeply happy when the Solder's Medal was awarded to Hugh Thompson, Lawrence Colburn and posthumously to Glenn Andreotta. It was long overdue.
Turns out, it was Prof. Egan who launched the ultimately successful campaign to award the three true heroes who put a stop to the massacre at My Lai. I was unaware until just now that Prof. Egan did that. I can't wait to talk to him again so I can thank him for this.
I stumbled across a Sixth Estate blog entry about it.
Checking further, I also found something on CNN.
I don't know when I'll get to speak to Prof. Egan again, so I'll say it here:
Thank you.
