Peaceful approach served WWII soldier well.

Byline: FROM HEART TO HEART By the Rev. Edgar Peara For The Register-Guard

When Pearl Harbor was attacked, I was an architectural engineering student at Iowa State College. A week later, I volunteered to enter the Army.

I was assigned to the First Amphibious Combat Engineer Brigade, which was created to spearhead invasions. Our mission was to initiate invasions and destroy barbed wire, mines, pillboxes, and underwater obstacles. We defended the beach, brought in troops and material and evacuated casualties and prisoners of war.

We were in the initial campaign of World War II in the east, the North Africa invasion in November 1942. As the left wing of the central task force, we took Arzew, Algeria. Initially, my unit's sector was undefended. Shortly thereafter, we facilitated the unloading of troops in the port of Arzew.

Occasionally, gunfire from the town would cause troops to take cover and return the fire, suspending our operations. I was ordered to take a platoon of men to "neutralize" the town.

Although I was a combat engineer officer, I felt that any killing would breach the sixth biblical commandment that was central to my personal religion. Trusting in that higher law, I felt that I could follow orders without violence or killing if I acted in the spirit of peace.

As the psalmist says, "Great peace have they who love thy law and nothing can make them fall" (Psalms 119:165).

Aware of how frightening foreign military helmets can be, I removed mine, and I took off my pistol belt. I told the men I would go everywhere first. They were to follow and not fire unless they were fired on, or I ordered them to do so.

I went from building to building and knocked on the door, saying, "We come in peace. We mean you no harm. We ask you to surrender all of your weapons." I was our battalion's French interpreter. No one resisted us. We collected so many guns we could hardly carry them all back to the city hall. There was never another shot fired in Arzew.

After that campaign, we went to Tunisia with General Patton, and invaded Gela at Sicily and Italy at "bloody" Salerno. I was on Utah Beach the morning of Normandy D-Day, June 6, 1944, and in Europe until our troops reached Aachen, Germany. Then we were shipped to the Pacific and the invasion of Okinawa, the biggest campaign in the west. Next, we disarmed Japanese troops in Korea and initiated occupation duty there.

In all of my WWII experiences, I did what I was ordered without violence or harm to others. I was unwounded and none of my men was killed. One had a slight wound on Normandy D-Day, but not enough to be relieved from duty.

One Scripture I "lived with" during the war was, "Those who dwell in the secret place of the most high shall abide in the shadow of the almighty ... which is your fortress, your place of safety ... You will not be harmed though thousands fall around you. You will be safe" (Psalms 91).

The Rev. Edgar Peara belongs to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene and is minister emeritus of the UU Community Church in Park Forest, Ill. This column is coordinated by Two Rivers Interfaith Ministries, a network of faith communities in the Eugene- Springfield area. Call 344-5693.