This if John S. Knight's "Editor’s Notebook" written for Sunday, April 22, 1945, two days after a Page 1 story reporting on the death of his son, First Lieutenant John S. Knight Jr.
Johnny is gone
Johnny is gone. The lovable, kindly kid, who never had a vicious thought 1n his life, is sleeping in Germany because of the mad, senseless ambitions of' a demented paranoiac; because in the last 20 years, the "statesmen" of Europe have repeatedly sacrificed principle on the altar of power politics; because those of us in all lands who fought the last time failed to insure a lasting peace; because, as his friend and fellow paratrooper, First Lt. Denis Jones, of Landsberg, Pa., expressed it, 'Johnny was killed just:. the same way he lived, doing just a little more than anyone asked him to do -- giving more than he was required to give. That is one thing nobody will ever forget about. h1m__no matter what he was asked to do, he always threw in a little extra.'
As we strive to fight back the tears there are memories of his childhood, his blond curly hair, his sensitive mouth, his contagious chuckle, his affectionate hugs.
Like ever other normal American boy, he had the desire to excel in athletics, become a crack boxer and cross country star.
Never a good student, he tackled the roughest work in a lumber yard during summer vacations with real zest and characteristic energy.
Johnny was never intended to be a fighter; he loved people too much.
I have seen him apologize to men he could have knocked flat with a single blow.
He knew his physical strength and feared it.
War to him was not a glamorous adventure but a job to be done so that he and millions of other American boys could live normal lives when it was finished.
Yet he took all the tough jobs in stride as paratrooper, liaison pilot and combat patrol leader.
That was Johnny’s way.
There are moments of comfort when we are told of the esteem in which Johnny was held by commanding officer and enlisted men alike. Lt. Col. Lyle McAllister of Seattle, Washington, writes: "Your son was one of the finest officers in the division and was consistently entrusted with the most dangerous and difficult missions."
Pfc. Earl Holcomb, of Fola, West Virginia, pays this tribute: "He never told us to go where he wouldn't go himself. When you went out on a job with Lt. Knight, you knew that he would lead and you would follow. He was the kind of an officer who really led.'’
But then the tears came faster.
Johnny is gone.
Try as we may. it is difficult not to become embittered. All of the kindly. sympathetic words we have spoken to others now taste like ashes in our mouth.
Perhaps it is always that way.
The great tragedy of the Johnny, the Sams, he Petes, the Joes and all hundreds of thousands of other fine young men who have died for us is that few of them ever had a real chance at life.
There were so .few years, "so little time" for them t0 have achieved but the smallest part of their hopes and aspirations.
It was intended by Divine Providence that the young should have their day in which to rectify the errors of their elders; to press boldly forward without fear or inhibitions in a world which has somehow managed to survive the sins and greediness of countless generations.
This chance has been denied them -- forever.
Actually, they wanted so little.
A good home, children, a job and future bursting with opportunity.
Now it will never be theirs to know. They have given their lives so that our country might live, tha't you and I can continue living in security and freedom from fear.
They never had a chance.
We hear to war is "practically over" in Germany, that "losses are light."
But every second of every hour it continues, some fine young American boy 1s being slaughtered by a maniacal foe indoctrinated with cruelty and hate.
Nearly three hundred thousand Johnnys are gone.
"We must make an appointment with those gallant boys and give them a solemn pledge that we shall never again shirk the task of achieving a peaceful world, free from the bestialities and carnage that have made a mockery of civilization through the ages.
We must guarantee them further that their returning comrades will be given the chance at. life which was denied to them; that no one of them shall ever suffer through our selfishness and greed; that our high_sounding promises will never re_echo as a hollow mockery of words.
Above all, we must work unceasingly for a rebirth of' spiritual values and the strengthening of our national character.
Here at home, we have undergone no such test as that faced hourly by our youngsters on the fighting fronts.
Sometimes I think it would have been better if we had.
But the test will come when the parades are over and the bands stop playing.
We have an obligation to those who have made the brave and gallant fight, a covenant with the dead.
To the Johnny who are gone and the millions of Johnny to come, let it be proved by our acts that we sought redemption and endeavored to make atonement [or the sins of a shallow, self_indulgent and greedy generation.
Through tear-dimmed eyes, I offer a silent and humble prayer.
May his noble
soul rest in peace.
Here is the report for Lt. Knight's death on page A1 of the Beacon Jurnal on April 20, 1945:
Lieut.
John Knight
Publisher's Son And 3 Others
Die On Reconnaissance Patrol
FIRST LIEUT. JOHN S. KNIGHT, JR., son of the president and editor of the Beacon Journal, was killed March 29 with three enlisted men in a German ambush near Muenster.
Dispatches from the front said the ambush occurred when Lieutenant Knight was leading a reconnaissance party of our men during the 17th airborne division= s drive on the Westphalian capital. They were two miles in front of our infantry lines.
Lieutenant Knight was 22. His wife, the former Dorothy Elizabeth Wells of Columbus, Ga., whom he married whilein paratroop trining at Fort Benning, Ga., became the mother of a son, John S. Knight III, two weeks after her husband died in action.
The tragic news was withheld from publication so that no hint of it would reach the lieutenant= s wife until after her baby was born.
The only suyriving member of the reconnaissance party was P.F. C. Earl Holcomb, 25, of Fola, W. Va. He gave an account of the ambush to newsmen, B. J. McQWuaid, correspondent for the Chicago Daily News Foreign Service, reported from Muenster.
Another report in the Beacon Journal
on November 3, 1989 on page B1:
Dorothy Knight dies;
wed BJ editor's son
By Clint Claybrook
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Columbus, Ga.
Dorothy Wells Knight, 65, of Columbus, daughter- in-law of the late John S. Knight, died Thursday at St. Francis Hospital.
Mrs. Knight was born May 28, 1924 in Columbus, the daughter of Worth and Irene Wells.
Mrs. Knight married Lt. John S. Knight Jr. in 1944. Knight was killed in World War II, near Hullern, Germany, on March 29, 1945. He was 22. She never remarried and the couple' s only child, John S. Knight III, was born two weeks after his father' s deth. The son grew up in Ciolmbus, where his mother spent her entire life. He was killed during a robbery at his Philadelphia apartment in 1975 at the age of 30.
Mrs. Knight maintained ties to her father-in-law, John S. Knight, editor of the Beacon Journal and founder of Knight Newspapers. The senior Mr. Knight died in 1981.
She and Mr. Knight (senior) were quite close and stayed in touch until his death, said Mrs. Knight's neighbor and cousin, Margie Thrasher. Mrs. Knight lived quite modestliy and sold real estate at one time, she said. She also was a very private person who hated publicity, Mrs. Thrasher said.
Mrs. Knight was an attractive, lively, vivacious person who was surrounded by tragedy much of her life,-- because of the deaths of her husband and son, said Constance Johnson, a former Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reporter who knew her for years.
Mrs. Knight was a member of the Junior League of Columbus, the Ivey Garden Club, the Country Club of Columbus, the Big Eddy Club and other organizations. She was a member and former Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church of Columbus. Mrs. Knight is survived by a sister, Tine Wells of Columbus, and three nephews.
The funeral will be at 4 p.m. Saturday at Striffler-Hamby Mortuary, Columbus, with private burial in Parkhill Cemetery.
Lt. Knight was awarded the Bronze
Star a month before he was killed.
Here' s the story published in the Beacon Journal on March 8, 1945
AWARDED BRONZE STAR
Lieutenant John S.
Knight, Jr.,
Cited for Gallantry In Action
First Lieut. John S. Knight, jr. has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal for heroic and meritorious service. In action against the enemy in Belgium. it was revealed today.
He is the son of John S. Knight, 80 N. Portage Path, editor of the Beacon Journal and publisher of Knight Newspapers. The citation for the medal came from Maj. Gen. W. M. Miley of ,the U. S. army, commanding officer.
The citation reads that on Jan. 21, 1945, A First Lieutenant Knight with a small reconnaissance patrol cleared the enemy from Hautbellain, Belgium. In the face of a numerically superior force, the patrol, under the aggressive leadership of Lieutenant Knight skillfully carried out its attack completely routing the enemy. The actions of Lieutenant Knight were in accordance with the highest standards of military service.."
LIEUTENANT KNIGHT was graduated from Culver Military Academy in June, 1942, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the artillery. At Culver he was captain of the varsity cross-country, track team and boxing team. In March, 1943, he was, transferred from Fort Bragg, N. C., to Fort Sill, Okla., in the paratroops and also has been stationed at Camp Mackall, N. C.
Lieutenant Knight and the former Dorothy Elizabeth Wells of Columbus, Ga., were married Nov. 20, 1943.