ATOP Chapter Fifty-Two

There were times that Rebekah wondered why she tolerated Mickey. He could be so frustrating... the way he persisted in being friendly to her when she was constantly trying to brush him off. She had tried to tell him dozens of times in the past few weeks since she had met him that she didn't want to be friends with him. Why... she had a hundred reasons against him. The biggest being that he was a Christian, and a Gentile. Also that he looked too much like Ronnie, and Ronnie had even more points against him than Mickey did. Not only was he an invader into her family, he looked too much like a Nazi. And that terrified her, although she would never admit to that fear. 

But Mickey kept on hanging around, seeming not to notice her brusque unfriendliness and her rude, curt remarks. That smile never left his face somehow, although it changed often... a sad smile, a sympathetic smile, a rueful smile, an awkward and crooked smile... that one made her want to laugh, but she never did. 

"Only a little more than a month until school is out..." He was here now, of course, having found Rebekah digging around in the garden the moment he got through with his after-school chores. A few short and angry discussions had kept Rebekah out of school for the rest of the year. Had she given Rachel more of a chance to speak, the anger would never have been needed. Rachel had no intention of sending her sisters off to school so soon after everything that had happened.

Rebekah didn't answer his comment. She rarely did speak when he talked to her. She just kept going about what she was doing, and let him talk. He seemed to understand this and didn't often say anything that required an answer.

"Going fishing Saturday," he added. "Would be glad if you came. The wildflowers are just starting to come out, and they're awful pretty."

Rebekah turned at the sound of tires crunching over gravel. A rather fancy-looking car was pulling to a stop in front of the house. She rose, brushing the dirt from her skirt and hands. Mickey followed as she went to meet the strangers who were climbing from the car, looking around curiously. There were two of them... a man in a suit, and a woman wearing heels that were never meant for the gravel of a country lane. As Rebekah drew closer, she realized the man was carrying a camera.

"Good afternoon!" he called out, shifting the camera and stepping forward, hand extended in greeting. "Does Lieutenant Ronald Stewart live here?"

"Lieutenant?" Rebekah raised an eyebrow. Mickey grinned so wide she thought his face would split.

"Yup, he does, he's my brother!" He reached in front of Rebekah to shake the man's hand. "I'm Michael Stewart, anything I can help you with?"

"Megan Newman, reporter for the Cleveland Press," the woman interrupted, holding an ID card out. Her tone and stance both seemed coldly professional. "My colleague, Howard Brooks," she nodded towards her companion. "We were hoping to get an interview with Lieutenant Stewart about his experience during the war and the Congressional Medal of Honor."

"The Cleveland Press?" Mickey's eyes grew wide. "Um... wow..." he laughed a bit nervously. "I think he's in the barn, I can get him for you..."

"No, Mickey..." Rebekah grabbed his wrist, jerking him back as he started towards the barn. She turned towards the woman, her eyes narrowed. "Who do you think you are, coming here without permission, thinking you can interrogate people about private matters?"

"What?" The reporter stepped back, looking flustered. "Why, I... I only mean to talk to him, not... not interrogate..."

"Talk, eh?" Rebekah spoke flatly. "About the war? You do not understand. I suggest you leave. Now."

"Aw, Bekah..." Mickey intervened hesitantly. For the first time in a long while, his smile was faltering. He looked confused. "They can talk to him..."

"At least can we meet Lieutenant Stewart?"

"That will not be necessary," Rebekah crossed her arms and lifted her chin defiantly. "He does not want to talk about the war. Those of us who experienced that hell do not want to constantly relive it. Why do you not get over your glory ideas and leave us to deal with the wrecks of our lives in our own way? There is nothing heroic about war." She spat out the last words. Mickey laid a hand on her arm, his eyes suddenly worried. 

"She's right," he said quietly. "It would probably be best if you just go. I'm sorry." 

"But..." Megan Newman faltered. "Statements have been issued already, a story is being written... we only wanted a few words from Lieutenant Stewart... just his perspective... that's all. He doesn't need to tell us everything."

"He's not Lieutenant Stewart, he's just Ronnie," Rebekah snapped, her tone suddenly threatening. "And you will leave him alone. He is trying to move on with his life, you will not pull him back into the nightmare."

"Megan..." the photographer was edging towards the car, looking apprehensive. "Maybe we should just..."

"Oh, that must be him now," the reporter said quickly, glancing across the yard. She hurried towards the distant figure that had just emerged from the barn. Mickey could hear Rebekah grit her teeth. She was staring after the stranger with a set jaw, her eyes flashing angrily.

"She does not understand, the fool..."

"It's okay, Bekah, really..." Mickey touched her arm again and she jerked it away. "Ronnie can take care of himself."

"My name is Rebekah," she turned on him, the anger in her eyes growing darker. "And you do not understand either. None of you understand. Would that you had all experienced at least some of that war so you would know the pain inside." She turned heel and rushed into the house, slamming the door so hard the shutters rattled.

The reporter had caught up with Ronnie and they stood just outside the barn, still talking. Mickey couldn't hear their words from where he stood, but his brother's rigid posture told him that Ronnie was upset. He was shaking his head and the reporter was turning away in defeat. A few minutes more and the car was roaring down the lane, dust clouds in its wake. 

"What did she ask you?" Mickey spoke up as Ronnie neared the house. He looked weary, his eyes a darker gray than they had been in a long time. He only shrugged in answer to Mickey's question.

"I don't understand," he muttered, shaking his head. "You'd think they'd all want to forget about the war. There's nothing about it worth remembering." 

♡♡♡

The Cleveland Press

April, 1947

OHIO FARMER DECLARED A WAR HERO

In the aftermath of what is known as the Second World War, the stories of ordinary men turned extraordinary heroes are constantly being uncovered. One such story is that of Lieutenant Ronald Stewart, a farmer from the rural town of Jefferson, Ohio. During the war, Lieutenant Stewart served with the First Division of the United States Army, first as a private and later as a sergeant. He received a Lieutenant's commission and the Silver Star for heroic actions on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy. Stewart's bravery was well-established by this time, his ability to take charge and remain calm during intense battle almost legendary. It is reported that the men under his leadership looked up to him with unwavering trust and respect. On D-Day, he single-handedly led several units, left leaderless under heavy fire, up the cliffs of Omaha Beach to make a breach in the German defenses. Stewart went on to help liberate Paris and fought on into Germany as the final battle on the European front began.

It was during the Battle of the Bulge that Stewart's most extraordinary story took place. The answer to his now famous and previously mysterious disappearance during the battle has finally been uncovered as eyewitnesses step forward. The words of the men who were with him during those last few months of the war only further confirm Stewart's status as a true hero.

"He is, without a doubt, one of the bravest men I have ever known," says Captain Reginald Phillips of Ambridge, Pennsylvania. "He has the heart of a true leader. He never once considered his own safety and wellbeing, and he was willing to give up his own life to save the lives of his comrades."

After taking charge of a severely-diminished battalion on Germany's frozen front and leading them through several skirmishes, including a bayonet charge, Stewart was captured by enemy soldiers while single-handedly defending wounded comrades and a civilian mother and child. For months afterwards, it was known only that he had disappeared and was later found again on a prison march through Germany. At last the truth comes out.

"He saved my life out there, and the life of my brother," states a grateful Private Jack Davis of Heber Springs, Arkansas. "We would have died in that prison camp if he hadn't gotten us out." 

Multiple eyewitness accounts describe how Stewart led a brilliant escape from a POW camp not far behind enemy lines. Fifty-three men were able to successfully flee. When the escape was discovered, Stewart stayed behind to take the blame, facing near-execution for his part in the escape. 

"It scared us all half to death," says Corporal Russ Sadler of Madison, New Jersey. "I remember Lieutenant Stewart had all of us who wanted to make the escape on a strict schedule... only so many men could leave every hour to avoid detection by the guards. He had it all planned out, even figured out how to pick the locks on the barracks in a way that kept the guards from realizing what we were doing. I was scheduled to leave in the next group, and I had left the barracks, we were under the floor of the mess hall, waiting for Stewart's signal to leave, when one of the guards realized what was going on. Some fool lost his head and made a break for it, just running across open area. The guard went to shoot him, and Stewart jumped him at the last moment, letting the man escape."

"I was sure he was done for," says Sergeant William Dell of Flint, Michigan. "They had us all stand on roll call for a few hours that night while they counted and searched for the missing men. They had Stewart separated from the rest of us... they tied his hands and held a gun against his head. They tried to force him to kneel and beg for mercy, but he just stared them down and said he wasn't afraid to die. That kind of courage in the situation we were all in... well... what can I say? It gave us hope somehow. A desperate kind of... I hardly know what words to use. Hard to understand if you weren't there. But it meant a lot. I think it scared those fool Krauts, the corporal who was trying to shoot him just kinda started shaking and dropped his gun."

The eyewitness reports go on to state that Stewart was severely beaten by the prison guards for the escape. Captain Phillips recounts that when Stewart was brought back to the barracks, he couldn't even stand on his own. He suffered multiple broken bones and deep gashes that became infected from lack of proper medical care. It was only a few days afterwards that the prisoners were forced to march halfway across Germany as the Allies advanced. 

"Stewart was only half-conscious when we started the march, and he couldn't even walk," reported Private David Kaczynski of Akron, Ohio. "He had been sorta delirious ever since that awful night. We helped him as much as we could until he could walk again, and even then he was still always thinking of others. Shared his rations with those who were sick, and prayed with us when we all thought we just couldn't take it one more second. I remember he half-carried a dying soldier for two days on that march before the boy died."

Through his courageous actions, Lieutenant Stewart proved over and over during the war that true heroism lies not only in big actions, but in small ones. He suffered much during that war and gave all that was in him to give, right up to the very end. Eyewitnesses state that on the last day of that march, he seemed to finally just give up, not realizing that relief was on the way.

"He just collapsed," Private Paul Daniels stated. "He was worse off than a lot of us, and he kept going longer than we thought he would... but I guess he just couldn't take it anymore. He dropped right where he stood, and the guards would have shot him right then, but the Yanks came along just in the nick of time. I don't think I've ever felt greater relief in all my life than when I saw our boys running over that hill... the first thought that stuck in my head was "God be praised"... and I know we all felt the same way."

Lieutenant Stewart spent several weeks after his rescue in recuperation, first in a field hospital in Germany where he was reunited with his sister, Emma Stewart Campbell-Hayes, an army nurse, and later in a Red Cross hospital in England. Upon his release from the hospital, he managed to track down Rachel Cohen, the civilian widow whom he had rescued shortly before his heroic stand-off with an enemy ambush party. The couple soon married and now reside on Stewart's family farm in Jefferson, Ohio, and it has been reported that they are expecting a little one this summer. 

Lieutenant Ronald Stewart is to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman at the White House at a date yet to be determined. This is the highest award able to be received for valor in combat, and a fitting honor for Lieutenant Stewart's bravery and sacrifice during the war.