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Louis Bennett, Jr. came from a family of wealth and privilege. Reared in Weston, historical descriptions note his likability, headstrong nature and mechanical inclinations. It’s said he had his own car and motorcycle by age 12 and “frequently raised the dust on his town’s dirt streets with best friend Paul Hoskins.”
One report claims the ladies liked him at Yale University, where he enrolled in 1913.
Bennett, a pilot, was eager to serve during World War I. So much so, he joined the British Royal Flying Corps as a means of expediting his entry into the war. His eagerness manifested itself with distinction – Bennett became the war’s 12th-ranked American flying ace, downing three aircraft and nine observation balloons in only ten days. A short career, but highly meritorious.
Shot down in flames, Bennett so impressed the Germans with his heroics reports say that they burned their own hands pulling him from the fire. Badly burned, with a broken leg and a wound to his head, Bennett died August 24, 1918, in Wavrin, France, calling aloud for his parents as he edged toward death.
Roscoe Harry Moles of Elkview was called Toe because his younger brother couldn’t quite pronounce the name “Roscoe.” Toe boxed and played football. He enjoyed recounting a tale of becoming ill and being unable to play in a football game; so, his brother put on his uniform and played in his place.
World War II came while Moles was still a high school student. He enlisted while only a junior in January 1944. A member of the Army’s 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, Toe was wounded on October 5, 1944 – he passed two days later, one week shy of his 19th birthday.
A remembrance notes Moles was the only member of his Elk District High class to lose his life to the war before graduation.
Lawrence Alexander Meredith was only 20 years old when the enemy captured him during the Korean War. A native of Fort Spring and raised in Frankford, he graduated from Frankford High in 1949, then joined the Army shortly after. Serving with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, he was captured near Wonju on February 13, 1951. He died in captivity; the precise date and circumstances remain uncertain. The Army formally declared him dead on December 31, 1953.
A do-it-all kind of young man, he played football, baseball, boxed, was president of his sophomore class and a member of the local Methodist church.
North Korea gave 34 boxes of remains to the United Nations in 1993 – Sergeant Meredith’s remains were among them. He was laid to rest next to his parents in a Lewisburg cemetery in 2009.
These extraordinary men are members of an extraordinary brotherhood of other West Virginians and Americans – a class of servant soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and the like who died for their country… for the cause of freedom.
As election season ends, and we rid ourselves of the rhetoric, let us be reminded that freedom is not free. As we ponder who to vote for – an important undertaking – perhaps the broader measure of success is the fact we indeed took time to vote. Not only representative democracy in action, but a gesture of thanks for these West Virginians and the many like them who paid such a price.
General George S. Patton said, “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived.”
Thanks be to God for these three and those like them.