Bennie Allen is bashful. He was sent to Japan during World War II at the age of 17 and survived a kamikaze attack by an enemy plane. If it wasn’t for the bright writing on his baseball cap, it would be hard to tell that the cane-wielding 82-year-old had ever seen combat.
Each year, Allen travels from DeWitt to MSU for the Veterans Day ceremony, held by the Army and Air Force ROTC. He sits quietly in a pew at the Alumni Memorial Chapel, where the names of recently deceased soldiers are read, and the program shakes in his hands.But he’s there for one thing: To remember the lives of the people whose wartime experiences he knows firsthand.
Future, past and present soldiers gathered Tuesday to celebrate Veterans Day, as well as the lives of Capt. Sean P. Grimes and 1st Lt. Adam M. Malson, MSU Army ROTC alumni who were killed in Iraq.
But not a single person was there to mourn; they were there to celebrate the lives of soldiers killed in duty.
Capt. Grimes
With a fist full of wrinkled tissue, Mary Grimes dabs at her eyes. She removes her glasses, exposing a somber face and pursed lips. As the mother of Sean Grimes, Mary serves as a reminder that when it comes to war, mothers sometimes outlive their sons.
Jay Diller, a veteran of the war in Iraq, said peers called Sean Grimes “polite and respectful,” and the “natural leader” of his 1997 MSU Army ROTC class.
After graduating with a nursing degree, Sean Grimes served in Germany as a critical care nurse before being deployed to Kosovo as an assistant head nurse. He then served in Korea but was deployed to Iraq as a physician’s assistant. He was killed by a roadside bomb on March 4, 2005, near Ar Ramadi, Iraq.
The largest section in Grimes’ obituary is his awards. Ranging from a Purple Heart to a Flight Surgeon Badge, he had managed to earn 14 medals and decorations for his efforts in less than 10 years.
1st Lt. Malson
Lindsey Malson Larkin’s eyes are a certain seafoam green only seen in coral reefs. A former MSU ROTC member, she learned the ins and outs of the Army after being commissioned in Fort Drum, N.Y., in 2003. But there is another position she has had to become familiar with — widow.
She married Adam Malson in 2003 after the two met in the ROTC program. Both were stationed together in Fort Drum. Adam Malson was deployed to Iraq in 2004. While trying to help an injured Iraqi woman, he was killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad.
Although tears often flooded her striking eyes, Malson Larkin is thankful ROTC puts on the Veterans Day ceremony.
“As a veteran myself, and being a spouse of Adam’s, it’s nice to take that time to reflect,” she said.
Bennie Allen
Allen’s life reads like a movie script.
The high school in Frederic, Mich., where he spent his teenage years was shut down, thrusting him and his six other classmates to nearby Grayling, Mich. The graduating class expanded to a hulking 26 students. It was there that Allen met his wife, who acted as the student council secretary while he sat as president.
At 17, Allen joined the Navy and was sent to Okinawa, Japan, during World War II. It was there that he served on a destroyer boat and survived a kamikaze attack. The first thing Allen did after returning home was drop to his knees and kiss the ground.
Now 82, Allen isn’t the only one proud of his accomplishments. Dan Graver, 60, sits next to him in the chapel’s pew, bearing a T-shirt with a wartime photo of the 17-year-old Allen. The two met at their church and have attended the ceremony for four years.
Graver, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, said people must “keep the memory alive.”
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“It’s to show there’s life after the military,” Graver said. “To survive the military and go on — you go back to life and move on.”
Retired Col. James Spackman
His snow white hair still is trimmed to perfection, but retired Col. James Spackman speaks softly. On his striped tie, he bears a small silver eagle pin, representing his rank as a colonel. A small cluster of other pins rest on his chest, one with an armed glove symbolizing the U.S. Army War College, and another in tribute to the Military Officers Association of America.
Since graduating from MSU’s Army ROTC program in 1965, Spackman has been around the block. After serving in Germany as a platoon leader for the 517th Heavy Equipment Company, he went on to hold positions including battery commander and operations engineer. Following that time, Spackman spent 27 years working for the city of Lansing, retiring in 1992.
As an MSU alumnus, Spackman said it’s difficult to remember how East Lansing has shaped him.
“Oh gosh, that’s a long time ago,” he said. “The preparation I had to do for my civilian career, as well as my military career (came from MSU).”
But Veterans Day goes beyond events and flagpole ceremonies, he said.
“It’s a national holiday, and we, in America, get our freedoms and way of life because we have people who step forward to defend freedom for America,” Spackman said. “The people who do that are veterans. It’s dangerous work, and a lot of veterans get killed in action, and we need to remember them.”
Spackman was the main speaker at Tuesday’s event, where he told listeners that veterans range from “that old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket” to “rednecks.” Spackman said all veterans, past, present and future, deserve only one thing — thanks.
“Just lean over and say ‘thank you,’” he said. “That’s all people need.”
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