Underwood delivers snapshot of war, family history, at Memorial Day 2016

The Rev. Charles Underwood, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church, Clarksville, delivered the 2016 Clarksville Memorial Day Service Address on Monday, May 30. He chose to convey the spirit of a story orally, as it was told to him. Afterward, several attendees stopped to congratulate Underwood on a speech well done.
The story began with a farm boy from Spruce Pine, Alabama, who enlisted in the United States Merchant Marines and set sail to serve his country as soon as he was of age. On his 17th birthday, in 1947, he boarded a ship at New York, bound for Belgium.
The young Merchant Marine sailor did not know what awaited him. He soon understood the solemn truth of war and what his duty of keeping a ship running was sent to do. The ships were sent to transport supplies and bring back bodies to American soil.
Read the full article in the June 2 edition of the Star.