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Dedicated to the service of God, country and reader.
Out for a ride...a rare sunny day in Kingsport
With Pete Dykes
Tales from the 40s, 50 and 60s Long Gone
Tales of the Old Days
A Christmas Mistake
Although World War II was the largest and most violent armed conflict in the history of mankind, a good many younger citizens of our country today have very little knowledge or understanding of the political, social and military implications of a long conflict that, more than any other event of the ages, united Americans as a people with a common purpose.
Now that more than a half century has separated us from that conflict, the memories remain only in the minds of those who in some way participated or lived during that particular time.
And, because many persons have no knowledge of what such a total war can be and how it affects life, it is necessary to at least try to pass on some information that can lead to at least partial understanding.
Vastly unlike the “Police Actions” and “Limited Conflicts” we have known in later years, WWII was an all out, total war to destroy our enemies and all they had, using carpet bombing via aircraft, blasting away as much property and lives as possible in any city.
On Christmas morning, 1943, Ingle Hensley of Hiltons, Virginia clocked out from his job at the Tennessee Eastman plant, and walked to the parking lot where he had left his car the evening before.
The vehicle was not there. Hensley called police and reported the theft, and caught a ride home with a neighbor who also worked at the plant.
A week later, on December 31, officers of the Virginia Highway Patrol reported that the car had been found abandoned about 3 miles from Pennington Gap.
Hensley managed to pick up his car that same day.
In the meantime, police at London, Kentucky had arrested a youngster for “loitering; a young lad, who finally gave his age as 15.
Identifying the youth, the officers called the youngsters father, who made the trip to London to pick up his son. The older boy had slipped away, after telling his younger companion that he was gong to go join the army.
The fifteen year old confessed to his father on the way home that he and the older boy had stolen the car at the Eastman Parking lot, to go “joy riding” but had run out of both gasoline and money near Pennigton Gap, where they left the vehicle and made their way on foot to Kentucky, a few miles away.
Arrested for car theft by Kingsport policeman J.M. Broyles, the boy was tried on the charge by Judge T. R. Bandy on January 1.
And so a Christmas mistake caught up with the youngster who heard himself sentenced to three years at the state reformatory in Nashville on a charge of grand larceny.
continued next weekend
Although World War II was the largest and most violent armed conflict in the history of mankind, a good many younger citizens of our country today have very little knowledge or understanding of the political, social and military implications of a long conflict that, more than any other event of the ages, united Americans as a people with a common purpose.
Now that more than a half century has separated us from that conflict, the memories remain only in the minds of those who in some way participated or lived during that particular time.
And, because many persons have no knowledge of what such a total war can be and how it affects life, it is necessary to at least try to pass on some information that can lead to at least partial understanding.
Vastly unlike the “Police Actions” and “Limited Conflicts” we have known in later years, WWII was an all out, total war to destroy our enemies and all they had, using carpet bombing via aircraft, blasting away as much property and lives as possible in any city.
On Christmas morning, 1943, Ingle Hensley of Hiltons, Virginia clocked out from his job at the Tennessee Eastman plant, and walked to the parking lot where he had left his car the evening before.
The vehicle was not there. Hensley called police and reported the theft, and caught a ride home with a neighbor who also worked at the plant.
A week later, on December 31, officers of the Virginia Highway Patrol reported that the car had been found abandoned about 3 miles from Pennington Gap.
Hensley managed to pick up his car that same day.
In the meantime, police at London, Kentucky had arrested a youngster for “loitering; a young lad, who finally gave his age as 15.
Identifying the youth, the officers called the youngsters father, who made the trip to London to pick up his son. The older boy had slipped away, after telling his younger companion that he was gong to go join the army.
The fifteen year old confessed to his father on the way home that he and the older boy had stolen the car at the Eastman Parking lot, to go “joy riding” but had run out of both gasoline and money near Pennigton Gap, where they left the vehicle and made their way on foot to Kentucky, a few miles away.
Arrested for car theft by Kingsport policeman J.M. Broyles, the boy was tried on the charge by Judge T. R. Bandy on January 1.
And so a Christmas mistake caught up with the youngster who heard himself sentenced to three years at the state reformatory in Nashville on a charge of grand larceny.
continued next weekend