Nashville Mission 8/26/09

This is why were are going to bed early and leaving at 5:30 in the morning to make a mission in Nashville. This is a letter sent to the TN state captain of the PGR.

*****

There's a small town in France that everyone in Nashville should know about. It is Crouy-sur-Aisne, about 90 miles northeast of Paris. If you're wondering why you should care about this hamlet of 2,600 people and what it has to do with us here, I'll be more than happy to tell you.
On August 14, 1944, at 7:30 on a cool hazy morning, while the citizens of Crouy were getting ready to start their day, another day of their fourth year of Nazi occupation, a lone American P-47 Thunderbolt came roaring overhead, smoking and shooting flames from the fuselage. It crossed over the sugar beet refinery and railroad tracks, and crashed into a bean field just north of Braye Street. Some people who had already been out tending their gardens this morning, watched with apprehension as a German patrol (in black shirts, they said, you don't ask those guys any questions) appeared at the crash site, only to stand and watch it burn, no one attempting to see if there were any survivors. They stayed at the scene for three days, smoking, laughing, even playing the accordian, but not at all concerned about the wreck itself.
After three days, the patrol went away and left the wreckage, still containing the dead pilot- just left and disappeared from the immediate area. A local boy, 18-year-old Georges Carpentier, at his own personal risk- those Nazis were pretty unpredictable- went to the wreck and gathered the remains of the pilot. He took him to a small wood- and- brick building that served as a morgue, where another local man built a casket for the remains of this American pilot. On August 19, at 5:30 in the morning, again at great personal risk, townspeople gathered at the local cemetery and, with honors, buried this man who very well could have been the first American they had seen since the Germans invaded their town in June, 1940.

The pilot of that lone P-47 was Captain Charles Peal, a Nashville native (Graduated Hume-Fogg, Class of '39) and a long-time member of the 83rd Fighter Squadron, 78th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, based in Duxford, England. He had 140 missions under his belt, and had just been married in May when he was on leave in Nashville.

The United States Government brought Capt. Peal home in 1948, and today he rests at Woodlawn Memorial Park on Thompson Lane in south Nashville.

In 1946. the City Coucil of Crouy, in a gesture of respect and gratitude, renamed Braye Street after Capt. Peal. Rue du Capitaine Peal runs for about a half-mile, southeast to northwest, over the same railroad tracks that Charlie's plane crossed before it crashed.

In 1994, in yet another symbol of appreciation, the town of Crouy erected a monument in Charlie's honor at the north end of Peal Street, about 90 feet from the site of the crash.

On February 11, 2008, through the Sister Cities of Nashville, Mayor Karl Dean and Crouy's Mayor Bernard Pitois officially established Nashville and Crouy "International Friendship Cities", recognizing that Captain Charles Peal had given his life for both the United States and France.

On August 26, 2009, the Cities of Nashville and Crouy will simultaneously hold Memorial Services commemorating the 65th anniversary of the death of Captain Peal. In Nashville, it will be held at Woodlawn Memorial Park at 9:00 A.M., while at the same time it will be 4:00 P.M. in Crouy.

While we are honoring the memory of Capt. Peal, let us recognize that he also represents all the men and women who gave their lives in the service of our country. Behind every statistic, beneath every headstone, there is a story, a life, a friend, a brother, father, a husband--

446,000 U.S. Servicemen Killed in World War Two-EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM SOMEONE'S CHILD.

446,000 Telegrams that started "The Secretary of War wishes to express his deep regret..."

76,000 still listed as Missing In Action.

Let's remember them all.