TREES TO REMEMBER A WORLD AT WAR.

Dwight D. Eisenhower orchestrated the Allied success in Europe during World War II. A green ash from his birthplace now celebrates the valor of those who fought for our freedom.

There is a tree that stands in Denison, Texas, offering shade to a modest frame house that once nestled close to three rail lines. From this site that tree has stood silent witness both to the maturing of a nation and the birth of a boy who would rise to lead the world at war and, later, the world at peace.

Today at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, 20-foot descendants of that green ash symbolize the six branches of the military, the soldiers' valiant service, and the terrible price some 300,000 Americans paid as they fought alongside Denison native Dwight David Eisenhower in World War II. It is not a new thought, this idea to perpetuate memories by planting trees that will live on for generations, but it is perhaps most appropriate here and in other sites touched by World War II.

Norm Lezy spent 34 years in the Air Force, 12 of them at the Pentagon, before becoming VP for federal and international government relations for Wal-Mart. He was among those attending the green ash planting at Arlington Cemetery last December 7, Pearl Harbor Day.

"I've been to Arlington Cemetery numerous times to officiate at or attend funerals. And I used to volunteer to be presiding officer when we brought back POWs. I couldn't help but think while sitting there, what a counterpoint this was: We weren't burying someone who died, we were planting something and keeping it alive. A tree takes on a life of its own and will represent people for years to come," Lezy says.

The trees were planted as part of AMERICAN FORESTS' memorial tree-planting program, Operation Silent Witness (visit www.americanforests.org), which honors the 16.5 million men and women who fought in World War II. AMERICAN FORESTS, The Scotts Company, and Wal-Mart launched the program at Arlington with the VFW Foundation and the White House Millennium Council. AMERICAN FORESTS' Famous & Historic Trees program collected seeds from the green ash outside Eisenhower's birthplace. Many of the resulting trees will be planted Memorial Day week at nearly 10,000 VFW posts throughout the United States.

The Eisenhower Green Ash trees, donated by Wal-Mart to VFW posts but available to the public at a low cost, will be delivered to local Wal-Mart stores in 5-gallon green buckets embossed with the stars of General Eisenhower and the emblem of the United States. Each will sport an explanatory tree tag and planting instructions courtesy of Scotts, which also funded elements of Operation Silent Witness's marketing campaign.

Veterans will be planting these living memorials to honor the service of those like 22-year-old Army Air Corps radio operator Tom Yandle, who fought at Pearl Harbor. Eighty-one now, he was awakened on December 7, 1941, by noises he didn't understand-machine guns and bombs falling.

"I knew it was time to get out of there when bullets started coming through the roof. We'd been instructed in case of any emergency to go immediately to our stations, so I took off running to the control tower about four or five blocks away."

Yandle ran through a barracks area and across a parade field as Japanese planes with red Rising Sun emblems strafed buildings all around him. From the glass-enclosed top of the masonry control tower he saw Hickam Field being hit-the barracks buildings, the main administration building, the hangars, the pockmarked runways.

What he was witnessing would ultimately result in 21 ships either sunk or damaged, 323 aircraft destroyed or damaged, and 2,388 military personnel and civilian dead. Like Yandle, each one of the men and women who fought in the war-6 million are still alive-has a compelling legacy that should live on in our national conscience.

"Operation Silent Witness began as a joint idea between AMERICAN FORESTS and Wal-Mart," says Jeff Meyer, who directs the Famous & Historic Trees program. "Wal-Mart was a big supporter of the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC, and wanted to share this commitment-made not only by them but with customer donations- throughout the United States, We suggested planting a living memorial: the Eisenhower Green Ash."

The idea was received enthusiastically by the VFW Foundation. "We spread the word on Operation Silent Witness at our year 2000 National Convention and at four regional conventions, plus sent letters to 10,000 post commanders all over the country with instructions on how to register for this opportunity," says Foundation director Col. Wilburn "Bud" Meador (USMC Ret.). "We've had an enthusiastic response. We've asked them to bring in local mayors, town councils, football coaches, and TV and radio stations to attend their Eisenhower tree plantings on town squares, village greens, city parks, or other community locales of their choice."

The Millennium Green project, part of the White House Millennium Council, also signed on. Part of a USDA initiative, Millennium Green advocates for gardening and tree-planting projects. "We felt it was a meaningful effort to have our elderly World War II veterans plant trees in recognition of what their comrades did. And it definitely enhances the environment we so easily take for granted," says Jake Kuitwaard, who directed Millennium Green operations during the Clinton administration.

Diana Kellar, community relations manager for The Scotts Company, which makes lawn-care products, says the project also fit nicely into Scott's philosophy. "... our approach to both community relations and our products is to 'plant, nurture, and protect.' You can't just take from the earth; you have to give back."

Among those on hand at Arlington as the first trees were planted were then-Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, and Pearl Harbor survivors Capt. Frank Costagliola (ret. Navy) and Capt. Ted Hill (Ret. Navy). A Navy bugler played Taps at the exact moment the first bomb struck Pearl Harbor.

In his remarks at Arlington, Scotts chairman and CEO Charles M. Berger reminded those assembled of the sacrifices veterans made to "earn and preserve the freedom we take for granted. If we think we stand tail, it is only because we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. If we think we are strong, it is only because we build on the strength of those before us ...How fitting it is that a tree be a symbol of strength and height."

Capt. Ted Hill was aboard the 583-foot battleship USS Nevada (BB36) in the thick of the Japanese attack. A 23-year-old ensign who had graduated from the Naval Academy just the year before, he was the division officer and in charge of a 14-inch gun.

"The morning of the attack I had no duties so was still sleeping when the general alarm sounded," he recalls. "I immediately went to my battle station in turret two, but being a 14-inch gun battery, we played no part in the battle. It was total chaos, a terrific amount of noise--a lot of bomb explosions, gunfire from all the ships around and the batteries ashore. From my position directly astern of the Arizona, I had a clear view of her when she got hit and blew up. That was just before we left our moorings and started up the channel."

The Nevada had been moored singly off Ford Island and had a freedom of maneuver denied the other eight battleships. As her gunners opened fire and her engineers got up steam, she was struck by a torpedo before getting underway. "As we went down the channel between the main island and Ford Island, the attacking planes concentrated on us. There were many near-misses and 11 bombs that hit. I had gotten outside the turret to help direct people who were trying to rescue others from the water."

Hill later participated as a naval pilot in the Okinawa campaign and the attacks on Tokyo, serving a full 30-year career stint in the Navy.

On May 24 in Kansas City at the headquarters of People to People international, the organization founded by President Eisenhower following a 1956 White House Conference to foster peace through people to people contacts, a tree will be dedicated to the President by his granddaughter, Mary Eisenhower, the current director of People to People. Col. Meador, of the VFW Foundation, also based in Kansas City, will host the event.

Operation Silent Witness also hopes to plant a tree at the U.S. Veteran's Cemetery on the bluffs overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, where the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, marked the liberation of Europe by the Allies and the beginning of the end of WWII.

Among those to win a Bronze Star at Normandy that day was Lt. (junior grade) Calvin H. East Jr., 21 and captain of an infantry landing craft. Now 78 and a resident of Seabrook Island, South Carolina, East commanded a ship in the second wave at Omaha Beach. When his vessel approached the assault area to land troops in accordance with the established plan, his Bronze Star citation reads,"... radio communication was impossible due to interference and 'jamming.' No information was available regarding the progress of previous landings or of the condition of approaches or beaches.

"At this point the U.S. (L) 403 proceeded independently to the beach under intense enemy fire and without benefit of a beaching plan. Lieutenant (junior grade) East directed his ship with courage and expert seamanship, and despite unfavorable tidal conditions landed the troops successfully. His calmness and devotion to duty were a source of inspiration to his men.

As the years pass and fewer people personally remember the world at war, it is imperative that the valor and bravery of veterans like Calvin East, Ted Hill, and Tom Yandle be commemorated.

"We need to have monuments and granite stones, of course," Wal-Mart's Norm Lezy said during the ceremony at Arlington. "But by planting these Eisenhower trees, I see a great extension of the World War II Memorial here in Washington. The spirit it embodies will be spread throughout the country in every little town and city in the United States."

Nancy Anne Dawe is a writer/photojournalist who lives on Seabrook Island, South Carolina.

MEMORIAL PLANTINGS:

Special event plantings this year include:

* The Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. President George H.W. Bush served as a naval aviator in WWII and was shot down by the Japanese and rescued by a U.S. submarine.

* Patriot's Grove Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, with Medal of Honor recipients and the U.S. Navy participating in the ceremony.

* The Eisenhower birthplace in Texas.

* Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.

* People to People International, founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Kansas City, Missouri.

HELP RESTORE ECOSYSTEMS

Planting trees as a memorial has been popular in the United States since AMERICAN FORESTS helped originate the idea in the early part of the 20th century. AMERICAN FORESTS' Global ReLeaf Forests are planted to restore damaged ecosystems across the country and around the world. Trees are planted for $1 each to bring clean air and water, improved habitat for wildlife, and recreational areas for outdoors-lovers. To plant trees or learn more about sites where AMERICAN FORESTS is planting native trees for ecosystem restoration,