ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9609030103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
CLYDE EASTER grew up in Cana near the North Carolina border and was wounded twice in the Battle of Anzio. Excluded from the 50th anniversary ceremony two years ago, Easter was one of the main speakers this past May at a program honoring American soldiers who, unlike him, never saw their homeland again.
Fifty-two years ago, Clyde Easter, an 18-year-old Carroll County boy, found himself walking ashore near a small Italian seaside town called Anzio.
This past May, Easter returned to the same Italian coast as one of the main speakers at a program honoring American soldiers who, unlike him, never saw their homeland again.
Easter's anger with the exclusion of World War II veterans from 50th anniversary ceremonies in Italy two years ago led to his invitation to speak at Memorial Day ceremonies this year at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy. The cemetery holds the bodies of 7,862 American fighting men - among them some of Easter's friends.
Easter, who grew up in Cana near the North Carolina border, joined Company A of the Third Infantry Division's 7th Infantry Regiment about a week before the landings on the Italian coast near Anzio and Nettuno in January 1944.
The landing was designed to out-flank German units that were blocking the Allied path from Naples to Rome, but the operation bogged down and the Americans didn't break out from the beachhead until late May. The Allies and the Germans each had roughly 30,000 killed and wounded during the battle.
Through the course of the fight, Easter was wounded twice, once on March 24 when a machine gun round hit him in the hand and again during the breakout on May 25 when shrapnel from a German shell struck him in the face. The second wound was his ticket out of combat. After recovering, he was transferred to a supply unit in Naples.
Easter returned to the United States and a career in sales and real estate following the war. He returned to Anzio for the first time in 1985 and went back again in 1994 for 50th anniversary ceremonies.
The Los Angeles Times featured Easter in an anniversary story from Anzio. He was scheduled to be part of the 50th anniversary ceremonies at the cemetery with President Clinton, but was bumped from the program.
The lack of a veteran on the program angered Easter, and soon afterward he set about writing letters to officials - including Virginia Sen. John Warner and the White House - asking that a veteran be included in a future ceremony. In January, he received a call from the U.S. Embassy in Rome inviting him to be that veteran.
During his talk in May, Easter recalled how, during his visit in 1994, he had stopped at the village of Isola Bella and come upon an open field that he recognized as the place where he had received his second wound.
"It [the memories of that day] came crashing down on me like a ton of bricks, and I nearly cracked up," Easter recalled recently.
This is how he related the events to the dignitaries and visitors at the Memorial Day event:
"As I was wounded, I was told by my platoon leader to start walking to the rear for help, as I was losing blood very rapidly. There were no medics available. They were either busy, wounded or killed ...
"On my long way back, with shells bursting, mines exploding, the suffering, the death, I could scarcely find a clear spot to set my foot."
Standing in the peaceful field two years ago, thinking back, "I suddenly realized what a high cost in lives and human suffering that was paid for the freedom we enjoy today," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Easter. color. Graphic: Map by staff. color.by CNB