Colonel Evans

My cold never materialized, even though I had to work later than planned today. Stirred up some discussion at work, which I think pissed off my friend Max. Or he was already tweaked about something else and I just picked a poor time to make waves. We’re getting close to finishing the first cut at our product and there’s not enough time really to get done what we’d ideally like to get done.

Talked to my folks today, we’re all heading to Arlington, Virginia next month to bury my grandfather. He died a couple years ago, and he was cremated. But he was also a war hero and has a plot in Arlington cemetery. So we’re taking his ashes there. He’s getting the 21 gun salute, parade, and everything. For me it will be an opportunity to think about him more and how large of an impact he has on me. It will also be an opportunity to meet some younger cousins that I don’t know.

Lawrence J. Evans, Jr. was a monumental figure in our family. He saw the world as very black and white, he had a tremendous amount of energy and presence, and he never liked to hide his opinions. He was a commando in WWII, and would be one of the first on an island cutting communications lines before its invasion and working with local guerillas fighting the Japanese.

After the war he decided to become a regional specialist, and the Army taught him Arabic. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan now has reminded me of my grandfather often. His specialty was the Middle East. He spent much of his career there, as a military liaison to Saudi Arabia and other countries. I think he was also a training officer, teaching their armies the latest methodology. My dad’s family lived in the Middle East for awhile, I have a picture on my bookshelf of my dad when he was about one - sitting on the ground in diapers in Jordan.

One of the greatest accomplishments to me in his service record was a literacy program in Saudi Arabia. I’m sure he was tasked with the training program for their army, in the late 1950’s. But the enlisted ranks were illiterate. To solve this the junior officers were trained as teachers, and sent to every town in the kingdom to create schools for reading and writing. The literacy rate skyrocketed. For this, he was awarded one of the highest honors by the Prince.

My grandfather joined the green berets later in his career, he was twice the age of the rest of his class. That reminds me of Marlon Brando’s character in Apocolypse Now. Martin Sheen’s character is reading the background of Colonel Kurtz dumbfounded that he joined the green berets at age 40, and completed the qualifying course that almost killed him when he was only 20. I held my grandfather in a similar sense of mystery and awe, and would have had the same fear if it wasn’t so obvious how much my grandfather loved me.

He was a strange bird when I knew him. Though long retired from service, he always had a sword cane or knife belt buckle on him. He was always packing some sort of weapon. After the army he went to law school and tried to practice law. But he couldn’t deal with how irrational and unintentional his clients were. Then he was elected as a judge, and in his courtroom they called him the ‘colonel’. He ran his court like a military unit. But even judicial life drove him crazy, the same irrational and unintentional people were still there just now in front of his bench. When I met him he was basically retired. A bookshelf of law books sat behind the lounge chair which I always found him in. But he always had a charming and mischievous grin.

I found a reference to him on the web today, an echo of his voice. The photocopy list of the Infantry School Quarterly from July 1953 has an article of his titled “The Desert is No Obstacle”. A really poignant title given what is going on in the world today.

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