Everyone’s A Hero
Our current world calls people “heroes” for simply going to work during a pandemic while posting dancing videos of themselves on TikTok. Other people are called heroes for teaching kids online while wearing a mask in an empty room. The word “hero” used to be reserved for our military. Even then, like being a teacher, you shouldn’t be called a hero just because of your job. It seems now that many feel they need affirmation from the government to justify their lifestyles, status or even whether they should be considered “honorable.” But has that always been the case?
I didn’t serve in the military and neither did my dad. But my dad’s father did - my grandfather. My grandfather, Leslie Janke, served in WWI. He has an interesting story and it’s his story that is probably why my dad never chose to serve and the same for me.
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, in the Walla Walla Washington valley. Except, I was just across the border from WA, in Oregon, in a small town called Milton-Freewater. The valley is about 250 miles directly east of Portland OR, so we were removed from the liberal influence of the western cities. We grew up in a conservative farming town with three colleges and the state penitentiary. One college is a community college (Walla Walla Community College), one is a christian college (Walla Walla University) and the other is a liberal arts college (Whitman College). Heavy emphasis on liberal. I’m an alumnus of WWU, but Whitman is famous for their theater with such star attendees as Batman’s “Adam West “ and A-Team’s “Dirk Benedict” (Faceman). With these colleges in our midst, we had some culture in our town, but the main industry was agriculture with a lot of migrant workers. Around the late 1990’s, the town turned into a wine valley juggernaut with the big celebrity Drew Bledsoe, returning home to establish Bledsoe Family Winery. Its a beautiful place to raise a family and enjoy life.
The sentiment of this town, outside the professor community, was very patriotic and I grew up with those ideals as well. But while our family revered the military, we also had a healthy skepticism on how the government treats it’s military veterans. My dad was born in 1943, and graduated high-school in 1961. He was too young for the Korean war and kept missing out on the Vietnam draft by first being in college, then by being married and then by being married with kids. He did lose some friends to the war as did many of his generation. My dad’s stance on Vietnam was something like “they called it a police action and what really needed to be done was a full military action or nothing at all.”
My dad was the youngest of 5 kids and completely a surprise and accident. Due to the late appearance of my father to this world, his siblings were at least 15 years older and this put his parents in the WWI generation, not the WWII as many parents were of his friends. His parents were in their late 40’s in fact.
My grandfather was born in 1895, and in the 11th grade when he joined the military to serve in WWI. I’m not sure if he “joined” or if he was drafted. Since he joined the military in 1917 and the draft was instituted in 1917, I assume the evil Woodrow Wilson was responsible for my grandfather’s conscription and essentially “slavery” to fight the Kaiser. While my grandfather was German, he was born in the USA and our family lineage in the USA seems to go back far enough to put me out of the “Nazi” problems of many Germans.
DISCHARGED and COURT MARTIAL
My grandfather was discharged from the military in 1919 and court-martialed resulting in a “dishonorable discharge” and a 15 year prison sentence at Leavenworth prison. Leslie had been “called up” for service while in the 11th grade. Not even out of high-school. After the war he was stationed in Georgia and given a clerical job. Leslie was a devout christian of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) faith. The religion has some aspects of judaism such as observing the Sabbath (sundown Fri to sundown Sat) and Leslie refused to work on Saturday. A local military order allowed SDA members to observe their sabbath as long as they worked on Sunday. But an officer didn’t like this and reported Leslie for not working and the court martial sided with the officer.
Leslie’s sentence was commuted from 15 years to 5 and he ended up only serving about 6 months of the sentence. But possibly more punishing than the 6 months in prison was not being able to EVER receive benefits for the service he gave to this country. With the dishonorable discharge Leslie wasn’t allowed a military pension, no pay for when he “mustered out”, no education funds, no war-time funds from the “WWI Adjusted Compensation Act” (Bonus Act) and when he got out of Federal prison he still had to complete his high-school education.
Leslie completed his education, completed college, got married lived a very long life including around 65 years of marriage. In 1983 President Ronald Reagan had Leslie’s case reviewed and it was determined the officer and Court Martial erred. Reagan gave Leslie his honorable status and the dignity everyone knew Leslie already had, but now it was in writing. For years my grandfather would get a picture from President Reagan and Nancy with a personal letter for which he was very proud.
Where Does Honor Come From?
Looking back, I am baffled how a man of honor could be forced into service, give his all, stand up for his principles and then get put in prison for it by his government and yet was always a patriotic man. Some might say Leslie was just ignorant and didn’t really hate the state as he should have. Maybe, but what I remember of my grandfather was a forgiving, God fearing and peaceful man. A man that would bring me a tuna-fish sandwich after mowing his lawn (even though I didn’t like it) and always had ice cream for a snack. More importantly however, Leslie took a stand for his convictions and he kept these convictions to the day he died.
Leslie had every right to hate his country and government for the way they used and then abused him. But instead, he decided to be an upstanding member of his community, an amazing husband, a loving father and grandfather.
It’s my belief his country treated him about as bad as they could, but it’s also my belief that Leslie’s true sense of worth and honor wasn’t predicated on the government’s endorsement, but on how his God and community viewed him. We all would be well served to find our self-worth outside of a government decree or social media post and instead from a higher power and community of friends.
Below is a link to an article I have about Leslie Janke from 1983.