Sergeant York -- the 'Epitome of Heroism'
by Randall Murphree
May 14, 2004
(AgapePress) - "When my father died, I sorter went to pieces for a few years," wrote Alvin York in his journal. "I was at that age, too, when a young man thinks that it's right smart to drink and cuss and fight and tear things up. I sort of felt that was the right-smart way to come into my manhood."From his humble Tennessee Cumberland Mountains boyhood, to hunting and farming to feed eight siblings, to riotous living, to Christian faith, to conscientious objector, to the nation's best known war hero -- it's all retold in the movie Sergeant York, a 1941 classic starring Gary Cooper as York.
However -- and that's a big however -- the movie pales in contrast to reading York's story in his own words. York was 24 when his father died on Christmas day in 1911. The third of eleven children, Alvin took responsibility for his mother and eight younger siblings still at home.
York's life became a paradox as he took seriously his commitment to his family, but at the same time spent more and more time gambling, fighting and drinking. His diary records those years in a chapter titled "Gone Hog-Wild."
Then, in January 1915, his life took a complete about face when he converted to the Christian faith. About the same time, he began to court Gracie Williams, who would become his wife after the war. For two years, all went well for the new convert. He courted Gracie, worked diligently in his church and grew in his faith.
He wrote, "I felt in my soul like the stormy waters must have felt when the Master said, 'Peace, be still.'"
Conscientious Objector
Even after the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, York thought of the war as something far away, affecting only a few countries in Europe. But when he received his induction notice two months later, he went into a traumatic tailspin that tested his character and his faith. He felt that he was totally committed to God and to his country, and he could not resolve the inner conflict created by his country's call to war and his church's call to pacifism.
York submitted a request for exemption from military service based on his religious convictions. In October, the draft board denied his request, and that same month he walked 12 miles for his physical exam for military service. That hike was the start of a journey that took him to France's Argonne Forest where a year later, he almost singlehandedly captured 132 German soldiers.
Not only did York become America's hero, but his courage and honor continue to be the epitome of heroism. He eschewed the instant opportunity for fortune, and he used much of the unsolicited monies that came to him to fund one of his great passions -- building schools and roads for kids to get to them in the east Tennessee hills.
York said he himself had a second-grade education, having gone to school "about three weeks a year for about five years." He never read a book until he was about 20 years old.
"I ain't had much larnin' that comes out of books," he wrote in his journal. "I'm atrying to overcome that, but it ain't easy." Still, York never missed an opportunity to learn from life's circumstances or from nature around him. "You can larn a lot from birds and animals, but I kinder think you can larn most from the soil itself," he said. "[S]omebody told me that Bobby Burns, the Scotch poet, used to make up a lot of his rhymes while ploughing and harrowing."
Farmer York learned a lot from the soil, and his wisdom is richly recorded in authentic Cumberland Mountain dialect. It is a wisdom far beyond what one can learn from books.
Sergeant York and the Great War (Mantle Ministries) includes interviews with York after the war and a brief chronology of the war. But it is primarily York's own journal. It takes only a few pages for the reader to fall comfortably into the dialect, to discover York's sense of humor, and to appreciate the spirit of this man who became the nation's quintessential humble hero.
Randall Murphree, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
