GAINESVILLE – With shoulders back and head held high, former U.S. Marine Private Clyde Pitts snapped-off a near-perfect salute. Not bad for a guy who turns 100 in just a few weeks.
Pitts was returning the salute given him by two sailors who had just completed the traditional flag-folding ceremony and handed him the meticulously folded triangle as a way of honoring the World War II veteran.
Friday’s Memorial Day celebration at Bee Hive Home in Gainesville was not, however, the first time Pitts was part of a military ceremony. Pitts was part of a Marine platoon aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, as the battleship entered Tokyo Bay to accept the surrender of Imperial Japan.
Pitts smiles broadly when that event is mentioned, as if it happened recently, and according to his friends, speaks proudly of having stood next to General Douglas MacArthur for several minutes that day.
“I was standing even with General MacArthur; we were out in the water on the USS Missouri, and I have a plaque of that,” Pitts said proudly.
“I didn’t know it was going to happen, but it happened,” Pitts said about the circumstances that led to him being aboard the warship at the time of the surrender.
Pitts is one of the rapidly dwindling number of WWII veterans still alive. According to estimates from the Department of Veteran Affairs only 400,000 or so are still alive.
Fellow Marine and Gainesville resident Jeff Blackwell felt moved to recognize those in our area who are part of the “vanishing heroes”. He explained that he wanted to make sure Pitts was not forgotten.
So Blackwell worked with Nick and Nayna Parikh, directors at BeeHive Homes, to secure corporate sponsors and arrange for the luncheon honoring Pitts.
Blackwell told the crowd that on Memorial Day, May 27th, those who died for their country will be remembered and honored; on Veterans’ Day, November 11th, those who served and survived will be honored; but, “Today it’s time we step back and reflect, and honor those who have given so much for us, for us to be here today.”
“Today we are honoring a special guest veteran,” Blackwell said as Pitts arrived via wheelchair. Those in the crowd rose to their feet and applauded; Pitts smiled and waved in return.
From his birthplace in South Carolina in 1919, to the deck of the USS Missouri in 1945, to the appreciative crowd beneath the giant canopy on Enota Drive, Pitts’ story, and the stories of countless others willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms, won’t be forgotten; that as the message of keynote speaker Dr. Emir Caner, President of Truett McConnell University in Cleveland.
"How do you inform a new generation of the 'Greatest Generation'?" Caner asked the audience. Those who grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s, fought the war of the 1940s, and built the United States into the the strongest nation on earth in the years that followed are commonly known as "The Greatest Generation."
To hear Dr. Caner’s remarks use the audio player above.
