A great and wonderful man passed away quietly yesterday. My wife's Uncle. Raymond "Red" Ellis. You wouldn't know his name unless you
are a World War Two History Buff like I am. Red Ellis was a Sargent in the Big War. He went ashore at Normandy back in June of '44, and was shortly
afterwards captured along with most of his Company by the Germans. They had no choice but to lay down their guns or else watch their captured men be
slaughtered by machine-gun fire.
Red was a 19 year old South Georgia farm boy when he was taken prisoner, but already a leader of men. He held his platoon together as they were taken deep into Germany and all the way to Krakow, Poland, near the Russian border where they were held to nearly the end of the war. They lived on one meal a day of cabbage or beet soup with a little piece of bread. He said he wasn't a big man when he was captured but he sure was a skinny boy when he was freed.
Last year NBC did a big salute to POW's from WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Red was one of the featured POW's from WWII. For those of you that remember
your history, when the Russian Army was coming East into Germany they came upon a big POW camp that was full of American and other Allied POW"s. They put
all of the Officers in trucks and sent them toward the Allied lines.
However they took all of the Enlisted men, put them under the charge of a Sargent and pointed him in the direction of the nearest American units and said
"Go!" That Sargent was Raymond "Red" Ellis. He led his men across Poland to the sea where they were finally rescued.
Yesterday morning Red Ellis, a true American Hero, passed away after suffering a stroke a week earlier. We don't believe he suffered, and we do believe he has gone on to a better place. He was a good man. If anyone has ever earned the right, he did.
