Dear friends:
 
On this Memorial Day I remember a great man whose hand I once had the privilege to shake. 
 
I was just a little kid when fellow Tennessean Sgt. Alvin C. York came to speak at my Centenary Methodist church in Chattanooga.  I met him afterwards.
 
Sgt. York was the greatest hero of World War I and was recognized for accomplishing an incredibly gallant and impossible feat.  He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, killing 20 German soldiers and capturing 132 others.
 
From York's Medal of Honor citation:

The Argonne Forest, France, 8 October 1918. After his platoon suffered heavy casualties, Alvin York assumed command. Fearlessly leading 7 men, he charged with great daring a machine gun nest which was pouring deadly and incessant fire upon his platoon. In this heroic feat the machine gun nest was taken, together with 4 German officers and 128 men and several guns.

Before the war, on January 1, 1915, Alvin attended a revival meeting conducted by Reverend H.H. Russell. During the sermon, York felt as if lightning hit his soul and was moved to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. From this point his life was forever changed. York took this commitment seriously, grew in his faith, taught Sunday school, led the choir and eventually became an elder in his church.
 
This conversion led him to file as a conscientious objector at the start of World War I. According to York's diary, his mother and his pastor filed the application for conscientious objector status on his behalf. York eventually was drafted into the Army and assigned to the 82nd Infantry Division in 1917 (in World War II, the 82nd became the nation’s first airborne division, which has remained active in the nation’s defense, as recently as Iraq).
 
When York received his draft notice, he wanted to serve his country, but, as a new Christian, he hesitated to join the Army because the violence of war troubled him. After spending two days in prayer on a mountain near his home, however, York told his family, "I'm going" and enlisted in the Army.  The rest is history.
 
During the epic battle, York and just seven others destroyed the German machine gun nest, killed 20 of the enemy, and captured 132 others!
 
How did York accomplish such a heroic feat? A conversation between Sergeant York and his Division Commander, General Lindsey, in January 1919 when they toured the site where York captured 132 Germans three months earlier reveals Alvin's thought about this:

General Lindsey: "York, how did you do it?"

Alvin York: "Sir, it is not man power. A higher power than man power guided and watched over me and told me what to do."

The general bowed his head and put his hand on my shoulder and solemnly said, "York, you are right."

Alvin York:“There can be no doubt in the world of the fact of the divine power being in that. No other power under heaven could bring a man out of a place like that. Men were killed on both sides of me; and I was the biggest and the most exposed of all. Over thirty machine guns were maintaining rapid fire at me, point-blank from a range of about twenty-five yards. When you have God behind you, you can come out on top every time.”

York's life story was told in the 1941 movie, “Sergeant York,” starring Gary Cooper in the title role. York refused to authorize a film version of his life story unless he received a contractual guarantee that Cooper would be the actor to portray him.  The popular film won many awards.
 
Alvin York died at the Veterans Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee on September 2, 1964, at age 76, of a cerebral hemorrhage.  He was buried at the Wolf River Cemetery in Pall Mall, Tennessee.

I thank God for Sgt. York.
 
Jim