TEEN PALM FLOURISHED UPON HIS RETURN TO THE ARMY and was promoted to captain. But the promotion paled in comparison to the long-awaited birth of their daughter, Susie, in April of 1948. They had long yearned to have a child — their prayers and hopes had been expressed many times in their letters before and during the war. Susie’s birth was the answer to their prayers and the prayers of many friends and family members.
In the late summer, Teen reported to Bamberg, Germany, in the 1st Infantry Division. Helen and Susie stayed behind — the Army did not permit ship travel for infants less than six months old. Teen, a doting and hands-on father, was certain Susie was in the best of hands but knew he would sorely miss his precious daughter until they could be reunited as a family when she was old enough to make the trip.
Germany was far different for Teen than it had been three years earlier when he moved from foxhole to foxhole and braved enemy fire.
After the war, Germany was divided into four zones, each controlled by one of the Allies — the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union — each with its own military government until a national government could be established and the country reunited.
Although Berlin, the largest city in Germany, was situated wholly in the Soviet zone of influence, the city also had been divided into four zones, each controlled by one of the Allies. Over time, the three zones controlled by the Western Allies came to be known as West Berlin, and the zone controlled by the Soviets became known as East Berlin.
In the post-war years, the Soviet Union began to dominate Eastern Europe, occupying or asserting controlling influence over Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. It was the beginning of the Cold War.
In 1946, Winston Churchill, no longer prime minister of England, traveled to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, where he told a gathering of some forty thousand, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe — Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia. All these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”
“Iron Curtain” became a shorthand term to describe the massive walls and fences that divided the Eastern bloc countries from Western Europe. In an attempt to create some stability, the United States and Britain combined their zones of Germany into one, called Bizonia. (In 1949, when France joined, it would become Trizonia).
In response, in 1948, the Soviets mandated searches of all Western convoys traveling through East Germany. It was an attempt to push the West out of Berlin. France, the United States, and Britain refused to allow the searches.
The Soviets then cut all land-based traffic to West Berlin on June 27, 1948, halting all truck and rail shipments. The response was the Berlin Airlift — more than 270,000 flights hauling more than two million tons of food and supplies. The airlift ended in May 1949 when the Soviets lifted the blockade. By that time, Berlin stood as a clear symbol of the rift between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Shortly before the airlift ended, Helen joined Teen with eleven-month-old Susie, and once again, the family was together.
Palm immersed himself in his expanded duties as a captain, but also made time for his Christian mission. In Bamberg, he started teaching an adult Sunday school class, beginning a life-long pursuit to provide not only for the physical needs and training of his men, but for their spiritual welfare too.
To some observers, that may have seemed paradoxical. He was a member of the world’s greatest fighting machine, yet he preached faith in the Prince of Peace. Long before, however, Palm had reconciled that seeming contradiction, concluding from his reading of the Bible that God often uses force to combat evil.
“When evil nations attempt to overrun the world,” he once wrote, “and destroy freedom to worship God, God uses Christians to go to battle and destroy these forces in order that his Word may still be proclaimed. The Lord commanded Christians to be a witness unto him to the uttermost parts of the earth. I am thankful that being in the Army I have an opportunity to have a part in this great commission and I want to use the rest of my life, insignificant as it is, to his glory.”
Palm knew deep in his heart that he would have been lost long ago without the gift of faith. Just as Charles Woodbridge had opened his heart and mind years earlier, so Palm sought to provide an opportunity for the men and women in the military to find their way to Christ.
His military superiors found Palm to be extremely conscientious and diligent. Further, he cared deeply for the men under his command. Those men believed him fair, honest, and direct. In response, they worked hard to please him.
His efforts paid off. Palm was promoted to the rank of major in January 1949, and was awarded the silver leaves of a lieutenant colonel in December 1950. And wherever he was sent, he and Helen worked as a team, viewing each assignment to a new location as an assignment from God to share the gospel. They usually first became friends and supporters of the post chaplain and volunteered to teach Sunday school classes and minister where needed. Helen always established a midweek daytime women’s Bible study class and often taught vacation Bible school for children in the summers. They attended weekly evening Bible studies as well as retreats. They truly considered themselves to be missionaries to the military. As Teen’s rank ascended, they were advised to do certain things to enhance his career, such as attending particular parties or joining the women’s club, but they demurred, remaining focused on their mission. Teen continued to advance anyway.
Palm’s extraordinary potential earned him a transfer in 1951 to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to attend the Command and General Staff College. There, Palm not only taught Sunday school, but also preached sermons at the Leavenworth penitentiary and filled in as guest pastor at a local church, delivering sermons based on Scripture he selected and painstakingly wrote out in capital letters on ruled paper.
Frequently, he preached a sermon to the officers about what it meant to be a true Christian believer and the difference between life on Earth and life with God after death.
“Those of us who have felt the sting of battle have seen the instinctive methods used to preserve physical life,” he would say. “Self-preservation in all walks of life is a natural impulse, which automatically reacts to fight for the last breath of physical life. But this natural life, important as it is, lasts for only a few score of years only to end and return to the dust from whence it came.”
He was fond of quoting James 4:14: “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
In one sermon, Palm addressed the command officers directly:
“You may make decisions that move platoons, battalions, divisions or even Armies. You may make a decision that turns the whole course of global war to victory. But the greatest decision you ever make in your life — the one that plots your eternal destination — is the road upon which you choose to travel. Someday you will have to answer the question: What have I done with Jesus?”
During these years, the Palms also became involved in the Officers’ Christian Union, an interdenominational fellowship of Christians who sought to grow in their faith and share it with their fellow officers.
In 1952, Teen, Helen, and Susie moved to Fort Monroe, Virginia, for a three-year tour of duty. It was a time they considered their most spiritually fruitful and rich. Three years later, in 1955, they drove to Monterey, California, where Helen and Susie settled in among students at the Navy War College while Teen went on an “unaccompanied tour” in Korea, two years after the armistice was signed to end the war there. Helen and Susie saw him off and would not see him again until his return eighteen months later. As they did during the war, Helen and Teen faithfully wrote letters back and forth nearly every day.
In Korea, Teen’s battalion was situated about four miles from regimental headquarters near the village of Tongori. When he arrived, there was no chaplain, and the chapel was a rundown shack. Palm arranged for a chaplain to be transferred to the unit, and he helped his men build a chapel. Soon it was overflowing with men and women for church services, Bible studies, and Sunday school classes.
While in Monterey, Helen continued attending weekly Officers’ Christian Union Bible studies and taught Sunday school. At the same time, Palm and another Christian officer, King Coffman, were instrumental in helping Korean officers start the Korean Officers’ Christian Union.
Teen returned from Korea by ship, arriving in San Francisco where he and Helen and Susie were joyfully reunited. They drove cross-country to their new home in Arlington, Virginia, where Teen had accepted a new assignment at the Pentagon. Teen passed the time on the long haul by making flash cards so Susie could master the multiplication tables.
Promoted to colonel, Palm was named commanding officer of the 1st Battle Group in Augsburg, Germany, so the family moved once again. They resumed their ministry in Germany. The Palms arranged a visit by Dr. Woodbridge to speak to high-ranking officers in his command. The Officers’ Christian Union convened an international conference at Berchtesgaden’s General Walker Hotel, where the weekly meetings were held. Ironically, the hotel was built during Hitler’s regime for Air Marshall Hermann Goering’s Luftwaffe. After the war, it was taken over by the American forces and used for recreational and religious retreats for the military.
More than three hundred people from nine nations were in attendance. Helen led a Bible study and prayer session for women. One of the teachers was Pastor A. W. Jackson from Cherrydale Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, where the Palms had ministered while Teen was at the Pentagon.
Susie would later recall attending meetings where the verses of Psalm 121:1 – 2 were prominently displayed at the front of the rooms: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.”
In 1961, Palm and the fifteen hundred men he oversaw were chosen for special duty in Berlin.
Although years had passed since the airlift, Berlin remained a volatile focal point in the continuing tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. East Germans were becoming increasingly impatient with the oppressive politics and failing economies of the Communist regime, so they began fleeing to West Berlin by the hundreds daily.
Frustrated by the talent drain and the clear message being sent by the exodus, the East German government, in the early morning hours of August 13, 1961, closed the border with West Germany. It began erecting what became known as the Berlin Wall — separating families from each other and people from their businesses and jobs.
At first, the East Germans erected a wire fence with barbed-wire entanglements. Streets along the nearly one-hundred-mile fence were ripped up so that people would not attempt to barrel through in vehicles. Concrete blocks and fortifications also were installed. Tanks were stationed along the route, and trains and subways were cut off.
The first Berlin Brigade, as the battle groups assigned to Berlin were called, was summoned in response to the border shutdown. Palm’s battle group was ordered to replace that unit on December 7, 1961.
To get into West Berlin, replacement troops had to be transported in convoys of trucks over a 110-mile section of East German territory. The sudden announcement that fifteen hundred troops would be coming in and fifteen hundred would be leaving at the same time — putting three thousand men on the road in the Communist nation — was perceived as a threat by the Soviets.
Before the first convoy could even depart, East Germany and the Soviet Union began making threats. Free movements of U.S. occupation troops had never been guaranteed, officials of those governments declared. They began threatening to block all traffic going to West Berlin.
Tass, the official Soviet news agency, branded the shuttling of troops a “dangerous act of military display” that was “fraught with dangerous consequences.”
The Soviet statements sparked fear that World War III would erupt. Once again, as he had in Munich, Teen Palm would play a key role in leading troops into what could be harm’s way.
Six months earlier, President John F. Kennedy had met with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev for a two-day summit to discuss the increasing tension in Berlin. Khrushchev had all but threatened war over Berlin and criticized Kennedy broadly over Cold War issues, including nuclear weapons.
On the final day of the summit, Khrushchev told Kennedy, “It is up to the U.S. to decide whether there will be war or peace.” Kennedy replied, “Then, Mr. Chairman, there will be war. It will be a cold winter.”
On November 27, less than two weeks before Palm and his unit were assembled on the West German border, Llewellyn Thompson, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk outlining what was at stake — and that included war.
The letter said in part that “the Soviets seem convinced that West Germany will obtain atomic arms and doubtless wish to batten down the hatches before this happens. Along the same line, there are doubtless many Soviets who think that ‘certain circles’ in the United States are bent upon the breakup of the communist empire even at the risk of war.” Thompson advised Rusk, “I should think the President should in reply express his shock at Khrushchev’s position, state that evidently there is little hope for a broad agreement at this time but that we should at least make every effort to prevent war.”
Rusk sent a telegram to the American mission in Berlin on December 1, saying that Kennedy had requested a “prompt evaluation of any new situation arising in Berlin … Command and other channels are in high state of readiness.”
The telegram noted that the official position was that the troop movement was a routine exercise and emphatically pointed out the United States’ long-established right to be in Berlin.
The following day, Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev. “Western forces are in West Berlin now — and they will remain there as long as the people of West Berlin want them to remain,” Kennedy declared. “Western rights of access to West Berlin preceded and are independent of the Soviet Union’s creation of the present East German regime … I want to emphasize again that what best serves peace, not merely prestige, must be our chief yardstick.”
When the first convoys left West Germany on December 7, the eyes of the world were watching. Newspapers across the United States carried front-page stories with headlines saying, “Convoy Defies Reds” and “U.S. Battle Units Start Crossing East Germany.” In article after newspaper article, Teen Palm was identified as the principal commander of the American battle group destined for Berlin. No one knew whether Palm’s unit, outnumbered by Russian and East German forces, would be attacked, overwhelmed, and destroyed.
To the relief of the Allies, the Soviets and East Germans allowed the convoys to pass without incident. Palm and his unit were safely inside West Berlin, and the crisis was over. Palm was later singled out for his leadership during that tense period, not only for the manner in which his men performed, but also for his participation in religious activities that contributed to strengthening the morale of the troops. Brigadier General Frederick O. Hartel wrote a commendation letter to Palm, saying, in part:
I was most gratified to see you, one of our major commanders, speak to the community and lead in religious observances. Spiritual leadership is an integral part of command responsibility and must be provided not only to the troops we command, but to the families beside them.
He was also praised by Major General B. F. Taylor:
For a period of three months his Battle Group was absent from this command while on duty in Berlin. The move, by road, occurred in December 1961 while the Berlin Crisis was still hot. Both the move and the assumption of position in Berlin received the highest of praise from all senior command echelons. The continuing top performance, smartness and discipline of the troops and the subsequent well organized departure again was noted by all. I received letters from General Clarke and General Watson, CG, Berlin, commending Colonel Palm and his Battle Group on their actions and attitude in their difficult task. For his demonstrated fine command leadership and inspiration, Colonel Palm has well merited these exceptional commendations. Colonel Palm has put great drive — and realism in the training of his Battle Group. His high standards, emphasis on a maximum of field training and his personal interest and emphasis have resulted in his battle group being in a very high condition of realistic combat readiness.
Life came full circle for Palm when he returned to the states with Helen and Susie in 1963. He was assigned to Fort Meade near Baltimore, the place where he and Helen had bid farewell, lingering at the bus stop, before he went off to war.
But it turned out to be an unhappy homecoming. While still in Germany, Palm had begun experiencing pain in his back that would not be eased. At Fort Meade, he developed phlebitis in his calf.
After only two months as chief of the Training Division, Palm was admitted to Kimbrough Army Hospital. Doctors discovered some enlarged nodes, but the nature of his illness eluded them.
After nearly three months and repeated batteries of tests, doctors conducted diagnostic surgery and found a growth behind his pancreas. A biopsy confirmed their worst fears; Teen Palm had Hodgkin’s disease, cancer of the lymphatic system.
For the next two years, Palm bravely and stoically battled his illness, sometimes spending two or three afternoons a week at Walter Reed Army Hospital receiving radiation and chemotherapy treatments.
Susie, barely a teenager then, later recalled it as a difficult time but one of unparalleled unity. “Our closeness as a family was related directly to our closeness to the Lord,” she said. “A day never passed that our family didn’t have devotions together morning and night.”
Though Susie attended a Christian high school out of state, requiring her to be away from home, Teen faithfully wrote weekly letters.
They were as close as a father and daughter could be, despite the frequent moves and the demands of military life. Along the way, Teen taught Susie to play softball, to use a camera, and to know the joy of music, including encouraging her to join the school chorus and take piano lessons.
Despite his cancer treatments, he kept up his daily routine as best he could. He taught Susie how to drive during her summer vacation. He continued to lead Officers’ Christian Union meetings. At home, he always dried the dishes after eating, something he had done all his life.
In November 1965, he was hospitalized for abdominal surgery. For the next several weeks, as he recuperated, a stream of friends from civilian life and from the military paraded through his room. Visitors found him sitting erect with his shoulders thrown back. He greeted them the same way every time: “Praise the Lord.”
Teen Palm faced his illness as he had faced combat — with an abiding trust in God and a firm belief that life is a journey to the ultimate destination: united with Jesus in heaven.
On one occasion, as he was being prepared for surgery, he told his doctor, “I am going to take a trip.”
“That’s nice,” the doctor said. “Where do you expect to go?”
“To heaven,” Palm said.
“That’s a good attitude,” the doctor said.
“But, Sir,” Palm said, flashing his brilliant smile. “That’s not an attitude. It’s a fact, and I’m looking forward to seeing the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Palm had an uncanny ability to speak about God in a manner that was inviting and nonthreatening. Over the years, he had been a powerful witness for Christ. The long days confined to a hospital bed were no exception. Glowing with confidence in his salvation, he lived more for others than for himself. He never faltered or wavered in his beliefs, and now, in his final battle, more than ever, he eagerly sought to spread the Word of God.
His favorite question always was: What is the gospel?
Unfailingly, he wouldn’t wait for an answer but would immediately reply with his life verse from Romans 1:16: “Why, ‘It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.’”
In his last letter to Susie, dated March 1, 1966, Teen wrote, “All we can do [is] put our whole trust in Him for all things. Thank the Lord we belong to Him for all eternity and He has saved our souls.”
Six months after his surgery, on April 11, 1966, the cancer he had fought so valiantly and that caused him great physical pain finally took his life. He was only fifty-three years old.
Of the many glowing tributes that followed was this from Colonel Arlo W. Mitchell:
When Teen was commissioned in the U.S. Army, he took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I am confident that at the same time, in his heart, he likewise swore to defend his Lord — our Lord — against all enemies. Thus he dedicated his material life to the defense of our country and his spiritual life to the defense of our Lord.
He was never ashamed of his Lord, and neither did he make others ashamed to admit they did not know the Lord. One sensed that he only wanted to help his fellow man find the way. I don’t believe he ever tried to change anyone’s habits — he simply introduced people to our Savior and he then knew that He would change our ways and solve our problems.
I feel the reason for his tremendous influence on others was that he never judged others — he just wanted to share his joy in the Lord. His life and the way he lived it reflected the shining presence of the Lord.
Colonel Gunnar Hage remembered Palm for his leadership and spirit whether at the Pentagon, in battle, in Bible study, or with his family.
As a younger officer, he was part of what the Army calls the “Queen of Battle,” the infantry, and rose to the position of command of his unit. In this position, one is 100 percent responsible for his men — from their equipment, food, clothing, ammunition and housing to their conduct in garrison and actions in the performance of their mission in battle.
This calls for training, experience, courage and leadership. These same qualities were recognized when, as a senior officer, Teen was given key staff positions as well as even greater command assignments of grave responsibility.
Teen was one of the few, one of the special ones, who obviously considered the Lord’s will and desire in all things, and moment by moment was about his Father’s business.
Two days after he died, Teen Palm was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. It was an overcast, rainy day with temperatures sitting in the forties.
Among those present was Charles Woodbridge. At an emotional church service he spoke about his beloved friend, describing with deep affection the valor, faithfulness, and dedication Teen had embodied during his short life. To honor his friend, Woodbridge dedicated much of his sermon to preaching the life text which they both had shared for many years: “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”
Then at Arlington National Cemetery, Woodbridge and others accompanied Teen’s cortege to his grave, as per military custom, and there he presided over the burial service. Eight months later, Teen Palm was awarded posthumously the Legion of Merit — one of the highest honors conferred by the U.S. Army — for “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services.”