2000s

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1. Kiasax R. McClelland January 24, 2023

   Mark Franklin-
   Reading your introduction, in particular about your father, brought back memories of my grandfather.
   My grandfather was an Eastern Band Cherokee Indian, as he always said. I’m not fond of the term Native American at all. It seems a fair number of the PC terms for things just seem to rile me, but this discussion is for other thoughts.
   My Cherokee grandfather served in the USN in the Pacific Theater, just as your father served in World War II. Though my grandfather was a gunner, though I’m not certain what role your father played while being a member of the greatest generation. By the way, my grandfather taught me to do many things: to track, hunt, live off any land and especially to shoot. He taught me to shoot well enough that i became a sniper in the military and for other segments of the government. Years later, when I was a young man my grandfather would take me to his local VFW, so that he could have his 2 Iron City beers. That’s all he drank, Iron City beer. And only 2 of them, ever. While my grandfather was is the Head one evening, 2 of his friends who had served aboard with him took me outside and told me something that he had never told me. Or seems that toward the end of the war Kamikaze planes were a particularly nasty problem to deal with. So, one time while the fleet were anchored rather far apart, a Kamikaze took careful aim at me Grandfather’s ship. All of the gunners were firing at the Kamikaze without success. The Kamikaze plane finally came around to my Grandfather’s side of the ship so that he could sight it in and due enough he managed to bring it down. Everyone aboard the ship felt some sincere relief. Then, they all heard the next Kamikaze plane as it swung around and began to come into view. Again, all of the gunners took aim and tried their best to bring down the second Kamikaze plane, and again none of them hit the suicidal plane. This plane seemed to be smarter than the other one and did its best to avoid singing around to the side of the ship that had seen his comrade go down without striking the American ship. With that, my grandfather got up and ran to the same type of gun he used, but on the opposite side of the ship.
   He took aim and missed the first chance he had to take out the deadly plane. Later, he said that the sites were different than on his gun, so he had to use the gun barrel itself to sum at the plane. The next time, my grandfather again missed bringing down the Kamikaze, though he did riddle it with rounds.
   The plane flew out away from his ship and he thought that it might have been trying to attack a different ship at anchor. That wasn’t the case as the young pilot made a loop back to his ship and my grandfather lined up on it once more using the gun’s barrel to site in on the Kamikaze plane. He was sure he would only have this last time to save his ship from damage. Grandfather lined up and this time there was no doubt. The plane lit up like the 4th of July. The men aboard all raised a cheer as the plane hit the water at a quarter of a mile away from any ship at anchor
   That was the story that I had never heard before. The two men wanted me to know how my grandfather had saved all the men aboard his ship, not once, but twice and how grateful all of the men were that his aim was true that day.
   In addition to that my Cherokee grandfather really do teach me to shoot very well. I got my first rifle, a .22, single shot, World War II training rifle, at an antique auction. I was 10 and with my mother. The winning bid was $12, which I had made mowing lawns that summer. I was so excited to finally have my own rifle. I really wanted a lever action, but they were out of my price range, so my bolt action was just fine. I’d had a Daisy lever action BB gun since I was 8.
   I took my new rifle to show my grandfather and he pronounced it a good rifle. He helped me site in much better than it was, and I have to say that I’m proud that I never killed anything with that rifle. I did make a lot of holes in paper targets however.
   The thing is, while in the military, I witnessed enough killing to last more than two lifetimes, as a result, I have zero interest in killing anything else. My grandfather taught me that hunting is only done for survival. In my life there have only been two times that I have truly needed to hunt fir food. Twice in my life I have been homeless. Once when I was 16 and again when I was 50. I won’t go into the details, but in neither case did I deserve to be homeless and both times involved my alcoholic mother, and I’ll leave it at that.
   I must also say that my grandfather and I both loved Western movies. While we didn’t always appreciate it when a Tribe was always the bad guy. Despite that, our Tribe was never the bad guy in any film that I can recall. Nonetheless, we liked westerns and in spite of John Wayne’s personal feelings and views regarding American Indian people, my grandfather and I liked his movies. From Stagecoach to The Shootist, I enjoyed them all. Unfortunately, my grandfather developed cancer and passed away before he had a chance to get too bloody old. So, he missed a fair number of Wayne’s later films, which I think he would have liked.
   I must say, I’m very happy to have come across your site. I like it very much and look forward to exploring it thoroughly. Thank you, and your father for settling it up.

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