|
June 10, 2006 - “Even against the greatest odds, there is something in the human spirit – a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor – that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory.” Those words by author, Walter Lord, engraved on the National World War II Memorial in Washington describe the courage and sacrifice of American servicemen in the Pacific theatre of World War II.
Undoubtedly Ensign Charles N. “Chick” Mantell of Whitinsville was one of those servicemen who were a “magic blend of skill, faith, and valor.” As the pilot of an Avenger torpedo bomber on the U.S.S. Cabot, he had been in the thick of the naval air war in the Pacific for only a few months before his death. The consistent efforts of “Chick” Mantell and his fellow naval pilots and crewmen, in those months, won for the Cabot a Presidential Unit Citation while striking Japanese outposts in the islands in the Marianas, especially Truk. These valiant air warriors crippled Japanese aviation making it possible for American forces to retake the islands as they moved relentlessly toward the Japanese home islands.
Chick Mantell was one of those daring and brave pilots who certainly did his part in helping to win the war against Japan. He had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a challenge and I'll meet it." He wanted to serve, and he did. He served all of us by helping to keep America free.
This Memorial at Fletcher Street and Country Club Drive, not far from Chick’s boyhood home, has been designated as a lasting tribute Charles N. “Chick” Mantell through the gratitude and respect of Chick’s family and the people of Northbridge. It stands among the town’s veterans memorials as further clear evidence that our Northbridge veterans have not forgotten their fallen comrades. In a larger sense, as we pass by this memorial from day to day, we should be reminded of all of our veterans who were lost at sea in World War II and all other wars in which Americans have fought and died.
I doubt that Chick Mantell, or his crewmen Helm and Turner, considered themselves heroes, but in their own way, they served us all heroically. They were among that “greatest generation” who answered the call to defend America in its hour of greatest need so that we, and so many others, could live in freedom and security today.
As we respectfully recall Chick Mantell’s service and sacrifice, and those who perished with him on that fateful day, we salute all who made the heroic stand for freedom during those dark days of World War II, let us rededicate ourselves to the promise of America that inspired young men like Chick Mantell to place themselves in harm’s way – who, in the immortal words of America, The Beautiful, “more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life.”
Observers on the deck of the Cabot tell us that Chick’s plane took off for submarine patrol as it had so often in the past, but this time, for some reason, it had difficulty gaining the necessary speed and altitude. Only a short distance after take-off the plane flipped over and crashed into the waves, sinking with its crew of three on board.
There’s a wonderful sonnet entitled “High Flight,” written by John Gillespie Magee, a pilot about the same age as Chick Mantell serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War. He came to Britain, flew in a Spitfire squadron, and was killed at the age of nineteen on 11 December 1941 during a training flight.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,--and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew--
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Chick Mantell and his crew honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives and the sacrifice they made for freedom. We should never forget them, nor the last time they were seen by shipmates, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye to scout for enemy submarines. Though their plane sank into the ocean’s depths, their souls must surely have slipped bonds of earth to "touch the face of God."
May God always bless Ensign Charles N. “Chick” Mantell, and all who paid the supreme sacrifice in service to our country. May God bless America!
|
