Dec 6, 2002 3 min read

I wonder how many others get tired of hearing and reading the expression, “separation of church and state as provided by the First Amendment of the Constitution.” The First Amendment, as ratified Dec. 15, 1791 begins as follows: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

It makes no reference whatsoever, to separation of church and state.

That interpretation is the product of lawyers, who are the only ones who benefit from such interpretations. The ACLU is really a bunch of lawyers, leading the type of people who look for trouble wherever they can find it.

Lawyers will do anything for money, like pushing for the removal of the Ten Commandments from public places, prohibiting Christmas scenes in public, or removing “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

The men who wrote the Constitution of the United States of America were all God-fearing religious men who designed and wrote the greatest document ever written for the benefit of its citizens. It behooves us all to let it stand as it was written and meant to be, for the good of all.

William R. (Bob) McGuinness

Connellsville

Pearl Harbor recalled

On Dec. 7, 1941, I was the commander of a radar station on Mount Soledad, near La Jolla, Calif. _Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, I received a telephone call from a general officer, who was my superior, telling me that we were at war with Japan.

He instructed me to order all my men to start carrying their .45-caliber pistols loaded with live ammunition all the time, on duty or off duty. I called in my senior NCO and gave him the order to carry out.

Later that day, one of my men was getting ready to go on shift duty at the radar site. He had his pistol in his hand, with the slide back and his finger on the trigger. When he inserted the loaded clip into the pistol and released the slide, the gun went off and killed one of my own men in the next tent.

I immediately called the general and told him what had happened. I also told him that I found out that very few of my men had any training with the .45-caliber pistol and that, until I was satisfied that they all could safely handle the pistol, they would not carry it loaded with ammunition. I also insisted that the man who did the accidental shooting be quickly tried by a court-martial, found guilty and fined one-dollar so that the civilian authorities could not try him for murder. I also requested that he be re-assigned immediately. The general agreed.

One of my most difficult jobs, and painful, during my 34 years of military service was to write a letter to the parents of the soldier who was killed, telling them how their son was accidentally shot by one of my own men.

That is how I remember Pearl Harbor and I’ll never forget it.

Frank Herrelko, Sr.

Colonel, USAF (Retired)