Hogie and Wac
My twin uncles were pilot and copilot of a B-26 medium bomber. They took off from Rougham, England, on May 17, 1943, to bomb a power plant in Holland, and, with the rest of their entire squadron, never returned. Edward and Arthur Norton, nicknamed “Hogie” and “Wac” were the proud sons of my mother’s parents, pioneers of aviation in the small town of Conway, South Carolina, and hometown heroes. They left Clemson College in 1941 to join the Army Air Corps, seeking to answer the call of a nation at war and to pursue their love of flying. At their own insistence, they were together in the same airplane. The deaths of these promising young men was a tragedy for an entire community and my family.
My grandmother was the daughter of a minister and a lifelong pillar of the Presbyterian Church. She made sure her family was well grounded in the Christian faith and faithful in their Christian duties. Even so, this event was a blow that she and my grandfather felt forever after. When the war was over, they sent a poem to be read at a memorial service for another pilot who died with their sons. It captures the devastation that they felt, but also a determination to find a higher meaning in the tragedy:
As we trail the weary pathway down the sunset slope of life
As we pass through grievous shadows in this war torn world of strife.
Then our thoughts turn slowly backward to a better, brighter day
When we were building castles and watching you at play.
We had dreams and hopes and visions for your busy little feet
Now we know those dreams and visions never-more your lives shall meet.
And now lonely, sad and stricken our one debt to you is plain
To prove that your great sacrifice shall not have been in vain.
So tis us you left behind you who must carry on
Take up the fight you died for till the last great battle’s won.
And to you we pledge our promise in the peace that is to be
That we shall never falter that the whole world may be free.271
The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.
—Isaiah 57:12