Blackwell-Frazier American Legion Post #142 Hominy, Oklahoma

With the Labor Day Holiday I need to make a slight departure to tell a story I promised last week. Kenneth Taylor was one our hometown heroes. Shortly after his birth in Enid, Oklahoma, Taylor’s father, Joe M. Taylor, moved his family to Hominy, Oklahoma, where Taylor graduated high school in 1938. He entered the University of Oklahoma as a pre-law student in the same year and joined the Army Air Corps two years later. He graduated from aviation training at Brooks Field near San Antonio, Texas on April 25, 1941. He was assigned to Wheeler Army Airfield in Honolulu, Hawaii, and began flying two weeks later.

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National Aviation Day is held each year on August 19th. The day is to celebrate the development and history of aviation. This day was created on the anniversary of Orville Wright’s birthday because of his significant contributions to aviation.

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This past week held a special day. It was national Navajo Code Talker Day. Sadly, the last Code Talker from this tribe passed June 14^th 2014. But what many do not realize that during WWI Native Americans enlisted and from the Wah-Zha-Zhi Ni-Kah-Zhi (Osage Nation). Nearly two hundred men enlisted for the fight. What was unique about those first Native Americans, who volunteered to serve in World War I, was that they were not citizens of the United States.  Yet, “ Without regard to that lack of citizenship, members of Indian tribes and nations enlisted in the Armed Forces”  Why would they risk their lives for a country with which their ancestors had been in deadly conflicts for centuries?  For the same reason Americans were willing to give their lives to; a place that was home, a place where ancestors were buried, and were family lived.  There was a “tradition of protecting their people.”

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It was a packed house last Thursday that included distinguished guests, a new member, and a drop by of our best buddy Dick Pope from out of town. Fortunately, Chef Sebert had prepared an ample spread for the feast. Using the word “Chow” would not nearly do it justice. His famous smoked ribs, potato salad with side veggies, topped off with two types of cake really impressed everyone.

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I remember in 1990 this week Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. The day came to be known in Kuwait as “Black Thursday.” 330 Kuwaitis died during the occupation and war. Sadam Hussein, leader of Iraq, took over Kuwait. George Bush senior led an inter-national coalition for sanctions and a demand for withdrawal. The Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm. I was on active duty and it wasn’t hard to realize what that might mean to me and my brothers and sisters in uniform and our families.

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