Honor your hero with thoughts, memories, images and stories.
NO GREATER LOVE HATH ANY MAN THAN TO GIVE UP HIS OWN LIFE FOR THOSE OF HIS FRIENDS
IN MEMORY OF CLAY WILSON STAMPER
By Sam H Stamper
It was on September 1, 1944 in France as the U.S. Soldiers huddled in their foxholes as the enemy shells screamed overhead that off in the distance the sounds of the advancing enemy troops drew closer. Soon the voices of the German troops could be heard in the distance. Closer and closer the troops advanced. The U.S. soldiers were determined to hold their ground.
Thoughts flashed through their minds as they remembered the hills and valleys they had left. They remembered their childhood when they had felt so secure with their mother and father, brothers, sisters, sweethearts, wives, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends.
They remembered the sounds of the voices of their loved ones who cried when the young men had to leave home to fight in a war in a foreign land. They remembered the tears shed by everyone as they boarded the trains and buses which would take them away from their home. They knew their life would never be the same again.
Suddenly the sounds of the enemy voices could be heard. It was a language they were unable to understand.
The leader of the U.S. Troops yelled, "Stand your ground, we will win this war yet."
The sounds of the hand grenades exploding were deafening. The enemy troops were getting closer and closer. Over the rise of the ground, the faces of the young enemy troops could be seen. The seven young United State soldiers in the foxhole were fighting to save their lives, to save the lives of their loved ones back home, the lives of all free men and women all over the world, to keep the world free from oppression. Freedom was more valuable than any individual or combined group of lives of any soldier. They had pledged their loyalty to defend the freedom of the U.S.A.
The Sergeant of the group yelled, "Fire", as the young German soldier stood up and hurled the hand grenade. The sight of it coming toward the foxhole made the blood of the young soldiers run cold. "We're going to die," yelled one young soldier. Suddenly one young man from the hills of Kentucky jumped up and grabbed the hand grenade just as it reached the foxhole. He threw himself on it just before it exploded. "Go get them boys" he yelled as he took the full impact of the explosion, "we will win this war yet". The enemy saw the determined look on the young soldier's face as he went down. They saw the faces of the six remaining soldiers as the battle turned. They saw the Allied tanks coming toward them in the distance. The German troop leader sounded a call to retreat. The U.S. Army won the battle but the young soldier who grew up in the Lee/Breathitt County area of Kentucky gave his life that the remaining six soldiers would not die. He gave his life in order to save theirs.
On September 1, 1944, on a battlefield far from home, far from those he loved, Clay Wilson Stamper gave his life to keep America free.
As we look at the United States today, while foreign troops are training in this great land, when U.S. military personnel upon induction into the armed forces have to pledge their allegiance to the United Nations instead of the United States, when personal liberties and freedoms are being taken away from the citizens who Clay Wilson Stamper and countless other soldiers, marine and air force troops gave their life for, we wonder, did he die in vain?
