WAR: AREA RESPONDS TO NATION'S CALL

Above, a selective service group from Cape Girardeau leaves for St. Louis in September 1950 during the Korean Conflict. From left, kneeling, Weldon Runnels, A.D. Hoffman, Jack Smith, E.A. Esicar Jr., Robert Blackwell, Leslie Tucker and Carl Wulfers; standing, Ivan Grebe, Lyman Stearns, Albert F. Cox, Eugene Macke, Robert Lang, Dayton Reitzel, Fred Jennings, Daniel Prewitt and Victor Groden. At left, members of Company L of the Sixth Missouri Infantry from Cape Girardeau line up on Broadway as they prepare to leave for World War I.

Cape Girardeau has sent its sons and daughters to war before, answering their nation's call to fight in two world wars and two international police actions.

Just as each conflict differed, the response locally also has been varied.

Today, yellow ribbons that denote support for the soldiers of Operation Desert Storm can be seen throughout the community and prayer services petition a higher authority for peace.

World War I

On April 6, 1917, a call to war brought a surge of patriotism in Southeast Missouri and across the country.

Cape Girardeau teemed with patriotic sentiment as flag-waving ceremonies, parades, and speeches were planned following the declaration of war. Businesses and schools were closed to allow people to participate.

"The business streets of the city contain a great profusion of the national colors now. Every business house is flying one or more American flags," the Southeast Missourian reported on a Chaffee celebration of patriotism.

Two months after war was declared, the Sixth Infantry of the Missouri National Guard was reorganized in Southeast Missouri. Cape Girardeau's Company L and the regimental band, Schuchert Concert Ban, volunteered en masse, indicative of the patriotic surge at the time.

The call to federal service came Aug. 5, 1917. Men from all over the district began pouring into Cape Girardeau. They stayed in hotels and rooming houses, waiting to report for duty. The Home Guard was organized as a military, civil-defense unit at home.

With the heavy German population in the area, some residents sympathized with the German cause at the time. A Catholic priest in Jackson was arrested by federal agents for his outspoken pro-German views.

In some restaurants, sauerkraut and spareribs were called "hog slats and alfalfa" to eliminate the German words.

City officials urged churches and schools to ring bells each evening at 9 to promote sales of liberty loan bonds.

The war ended Nov. 11, 1918.

On June 11, 1919, a flotilla of war craft stopped at the Cape Girardeau riverfront on its way to St. Louis. The flotilla included captured German submarine K-5, submarine chasers SC-2 and SC-789 and the destroyer Isabel. Three seaplanes also passed over.

World War II

Cape Girardeau residents learned of the outbreak of World War II in Europe on Sept. 1, 1939 through an extra edition of the Southeast Missourian.

At 6 a.m., newsboys dashed through their routes shouting "Extra. Extra. War has started."

The newspaper's headline announcing the war was printed in red ink, one of the few times in history a red headline has been used on its front page.

Cape Girardeau's 140th Infantry Regiment was mobilized in December 1940. For about two weeks, Arena Park was converted to a camp of sorts.

Pearl Harbor brought news censorship, an embargo on critical materials, then rationing of tires, automobiles, typewriters, sugar, bicycles, rubber boots, fuel oil, kerosene gasoline and coffee.

Cuffs on men's trousers were prohibited and the length of women's skirts was regulated to save cloth.

Responding to a fear that the Germans might bring their submarines up the Mississippi to knock out traffic bridges and establish a beachhead, a blackout was imposed on the Midwest Dec. 14, 1942. A sentry was posted at the river bridge in Cape Girardeau to guard against sabotage.

Civil Defense groups were active once again and the government promoted metal scrap drives to feed the war machine.

Flight training was conducted by the Army at Harris Field, now the Municipal Airport. A Navy aviation unit was located on Highway 74, now the headquarters of R.B. Potashnick Construction Company.

A war curfew was established Feb. 26, 1945, forcing entertainment establishments to close early to save coal.

The war ended Dec. 31, 1946.

Korea

On June 25, 1950, North Korea crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea beginning a new era in American warfare. This was a different sort of war that went by the name of "police action."

The first Cape Girardeau men left in August for Korea aboard buses headed to St. Louis.

Civil defense plans were mobilized here in November, 1950, and businesses were asked not to stockpile materials like cement, rubber and tin, which were crucial to the war effort.

But involvement on the home front was not as heavy as in the World Wars.

The conflict ended July 27, 1953.

Vietnam

United States advisers entered South Vietnam in 1961, and the country was soon plunged into its longest and most unpopular war.

Draft dodging and the action of radical groups like the Students for a Democratic Society and the Weathermen stirred impulses in those who felt the social and moral institutions of the U.S. were in jeopardy.

Probably the most controversial local occurrence was the dismissal, for undisclosed reasons, of eight professors at the college in the spring of 1968.

Accusing the college administration of firing the teachers because of their personal views and activities, students demonstrated and some faculty members resigned in protest. But the Board of Regents upheld its decision.

As the war continued, students and others began protest marches and prayer vigils. Rallies also were conducted in support of soldiers Missing in Action and Prisoners of War.

Peace finally was announced in January, 1973.

Photos of World War I courtesy of Judith Ann Crow. Other photos from Missourian files.