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Sevier County in Europe
For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men . . . have lived . . . A man does what he must--in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures--and that is the basis of all human morality.
--John F. Kennedy
by Christy Nowers_____
After the horrors of World War I, the 1920's seemed to bring a long era of worldwide stability and economic prosperity, but serious diplomatic, political, and economic problems remained unsolved. The Great Depression of the 1930's accentuated these problems and helped create an environment in which militaristic leadership flourished.
Because they felt that democracy had failed, the people of Germany, Italy, and Japan looked with increasing favor on anti-democratic values that glorified war as a means of rescuing the nation.
In Germany, Hitler's National Socialists gained power in 1933. Hitler tore up the Versailles Peace Treaty of World War I, took Germany out of the League of Nations and began a massive program to build up the German military.
On September 1, 1939, the German military machine struck Poland in what was know as a blitzkrieg (lightning war). This was the official beginning of World War II, although in the United States, and therefore in Sevier County, involvement did not take place until after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Sevier County saw involvement in the European Theater in World War II from several different perspectives.
One of these was Scott Hansen's. He had the opportunity to participate in the war as a medic in the medical detachment of the National Guard and as a pilot of a B-17 bomber.
At the time that Hitler invaded Poland, Mr. Hansen hadn't been out of school very long. He and his family followed the events of the war just as other Americans followed the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
When Mr. Hansen heard about the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, he was in a medical detachment of the National Guard at a surgical technicians' school. He knew he would be involved because the government extended his service from a few months to two years.
He enjoyed the medical detachment, but he really wanted to be a pilot. He went through the necessary testing and training and began his years of service as a B-17 pilot.
The B-17 bomber began to enter the war in 1941, shortly before the U.S. involvement. For the B-17s air crew, operating conditions were grueling. Hazards of anoxia, total deprivation of oxygen, and frostbite were always present. The crew consisted of a radio operator, navigator, bombardier, co-pilot, ball turret gunner, two waist gunners and a tail gunner.
Scott Hansen recalls several intense missions that he was assigned to, especially the first one:
That first one was quite an experience, as I was green and did not know what it was all about. When they shoot five out of six planes down right in front of you, that's pretty intense. Those guys were bailing out and going into the North Sea; they didn't have a prayer and you knew when you saw those parachutes, they were frozen to death; if they didn't freeze on the way down, they wouldn't last when they got to the ground.
After completing his service, he had flown 32 missions in all. In retrospect, he commented.
Thinking about the war brings back lots of memories. You made friends fast and you lost them fast. When I went into the group, there were twenty-one crews of B-17s assigned into that group at the same time. That's 210 men. Out of the twenty-one crews that I went in with, there were only seven that finished; the rest got shot down . . . It sounds horrible, but war is horrible. A lot of people were injured and killed.
Another perspective on the war was that of Marvin Christensen. His job was to build and tear down bridges. He wasn't in the actual fighting, but he did get wounded while working at a base near the Rhine River.
I was at the building we were staying in. There were two fellows from another camp or unit . . . out in the sun reading letters from home, and a little plane came over...and all of a sudden a bomb just lit right by them. It blew one of them across the chest, and it took the top of the other one's head right off, besides cutting them up everywhere else. I got a piece in the wrist.
Mr. Christensen expressed his thankfulness for the opportunity to live in this land of freedom and prays that we never have to experience war in our homeland.
Every town and building was just blown to pieces; the forests and trees were completely stripped. When I think that it could happen here, . . . I appreciate where we live and the freedom we have. . . . If I could just get one point across, it is to be thankful that you live in this land of freedom and that you don't have any war here.
Sevier County did play a major role in World War II, and the war has played a major role in the lives of those that took part. The struggle and pain contributed to what this great nation is today, as well as to the character of the people who lived through the war years. Their experiences, when shared, document the price of the freedoms Americans enjoy today, a price that should never be forgotten.
