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00:00welcome to operation healing heroes join me today as we feature 101 year old US Navy veteran George
00:11Hamilton in Birmingham Alabama at Rickwood field the oldest ballpark in America they served for us
00:20they sacrificed for us their stories deserve to be told every military veteran has a story to
00:36tell join our host Jay Garstickey as we honor the stories of our true American heroes one
00:44soldier at a time the mission today is operation healing heroes brought to you by great clips
00:57starts his line up again here it comes he swings at supply going in the right field
01:04for over a century Rickwood field has carried not just the history but the spirit of baseball
01:20echoes of cheers resonate through the hallowed halls of what has long been a literal time capsule of
01:29America's pastime Birmingham's hometown hero George Hamilton left his indelible mark on Rickwood field
01:43George played in the industrial league after his service in the Navy during World War II so you
01:49remember playing here at this field oh yes I played amateur ball here but it was actually semi-pro cause
01:55most of us got paid to play anyway a couple million dollars a bunch of contracts although he doesn't
02:04have many home runs to his name George hit a grand slam when he accepted Christ into his life I don't want to
02:12be a bore anything but I want to give him all the credit and I I want to mention I'll be mentioning his
02:18name as spasmodically as we go through if that's okay amen to that I say I because I love the Lord and
02:27he's done something for me that no one else could have done everything I am and everything I hope to be
02:35is because of what the Lord has done for me tell me about growing up where'd you grow up well which time
02:44why oh I was born in Louisiana well Monroe Louisiana I lived in Arkansas Missouri Georgia Florida and Alabama I
02:56guess when the rent came to you my daddy had to leave I spent the depression years we'll put it that way
03:05that's the years I grew up in Alabama and the more I look back at my life during that depression the more I
03:16think it was a blessing to live during that time we learn so much and learn so much about people that back in
03:26those days what ninety percent of the people didn't have anything I tell everybody if I had two biscuits and you
03:34didn't have one I'd eat one and give you the other one and that's the way everybody was tell me
03:40about the time leading up to you getting into the war where you drafted or did you know of course I
03:48registered for the draft anybody over 18 registered for the draft never heard from them anymore and one
03:57morning I went to work and my boss's name was John and I said where's John he joined the
04:04Seabees I said well if he joined them that's good enough for me and the Seabees was part of the
04:11Navy construction battalion and said I want to join the Seabees and finally he said you don't want to
04:18get in the Seabees said you get in the regular Navy now and says you get in the Seabees they'll put you
04:24on an island over there and forget about you well I'll let him talk me into it he said if you get on the Navy
04:30you'll get aboard ship and you'll see everything I joined the Navy got on a ship they put me in the
04:37Aleutian Islands and forgot about me Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Cliffs the Yance
04:48Valor Foundation and by the Al Lynch Foundation Operation Healing Heroes is a non-profit organization
05:00dedicated to documenting the lives of our US military veterans in addition we also provide financial
05:06support and treatment for post-traumatic stress your donation will help heal our heroes
05:12don't go to any lower than that because I'm not going to try to catch it I can catch you can catch
05:24keep it up right yeah keep it up high on them during World War II Japanese troops were able to invade and
05:31occupy part of the Aleutian Islands their recovery became a matter of national pride requiring additional
05:38U.S. troops he sent me to the Aleutian Islands to patrol up there so that the heroes could go get in battle
05:46in those days basic training was designed to last 16 weeks we went through in three weeks because they
05:57needed personnel I got assigned to go to radar school which was a nine-month course three weeks he said get
06:08what you can and you get you can get educated aboard ship and what were the conditions like on the ship well
06:16the first ship I was on was built in 1923 as an anti-submarine vessel and wasn't built for World War II
06:27to say the truth but that's all that's all we had after Pearl Harbor so they pulled those out through destroyers
06:36and cruisers and cruisers and I happened to get on one one at book I'll tell you it was 306 feet long
06:45pointed on both ends the across the beam and its widest place was 32 feet and we drew nine feet of water
06:58water wow which is not very that's not much at all you don't have much stability and a calm sea in
07:05Aleutian Islands is about four foot waves so we never we never sailed even it was always this way
07:14but uh it was fun it was designed for 105 people officers and men we had 242 on there wow we got bombed
07:26several times uh by air raid bomb and had a couple of close calls and that's another thing the wind was
07:36we anchored we anchored when we anchored we were in say in this position well the wind blew the ship
07:45around as I came on deck I got wet by the by the where the bombs had hit the water and they went right
07:55down the way we were anchored we rolled we were listed 57 degrees one night and they said if we'd gone
08:04another degree we wouldn't come back up really I was on deck if it had been 10 seconds later I'd have
08:11been out on the middle of the deck and I'd have been gone that was the Lord looking after me and uh but
08:20you know what I thought about it wasn't scared I looked down and saw that deck on the water and I
08:27said George you're gonna get wet when that comes back up I did I remember gotta be up here I'm gonna
08:38do my best I'm going with my fastball though first okay this is for real now all right this is the bottom
08:46of the ninth two out two men on oh that one's over the fence good job young man I'm surprised I hit that
09:15many you hit almost all of them operation healing heroes is brought to you by great cliffs power pole and
09:26by st. Croix rods he called me out at first and I knew I was safe George if you don't hush I'm gonna throw
09:39you out the ball game I said you ain't got the guts you're out of here he threw me out you were the
09:45first one huh and that's the only time I ever got four miles of the ball game if you'd like to see more
09:50behind-the-scenes footage follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel if you're a
09:56US military veteran in Illinois Wisconsin Michigan Minnesota or beautiful sunny Florida log on to our
10:03website take a vetfishing.org to find an event near you ladies and gentlemen welcome to America's oldest
10:18baseball park Rickwood Phil today is a special day as we host the Carver Rams at the mighty Jackson Olin Mustangs
10:26throwing out our first pitch honorary guest World War II veteran and 101 year old former baseball player
10:37Mr. George Hamilton to this day Rickwood field is still actively honoring the game of baseball both with
10:44its museum and hosting local high school and college games how about a round of applause now let's play ball
10:56so you live to be 101 years old tell me what the secret is I get up every morning put your feet flat
11:11on the floor look up to the Lord and say thank you for one more day and if he gives you enough days
11:18you live to be 101 there you go amen to that that's as simple as I know how to put it a simple recipe for
11:26life indeed as simple as baseball hot dogs and apple pie I got aboard the crew for the Orlik in I guess it
11:39was May of 45 the captain told us that we were going to be a picket ship for the invasion of Japan and we
11:49just oh man we were so happy we didn't know we didn't realize that us picket ship was a suicide deal
11:57oh no but a picket ship in those days was the uh ran 50 to 75 miles in front of the task force and we
12:09were the eyes and ears we were to tell them who was there what was there what type was there how many
12:15and stopped what we could we got on a mission one night and we got underway and the captain told us
12:23after we were underway this is our orders report the number of ships the types of ships fire torpedoes
12:32and rammed the nearest ship well did we get scared no hey when we get aboard when we ran that ship and
12:42boarded I'm gonna get me a what they call them samurai swords I'm gonna get one of them so I can have it
12:49when I get out of the Navy and then I call I say my friend Harry president Harry Truman ordered the
12:58atomic bomb dropped I said my friend Harry saved my life he did that and we there were and people
13:08criticized him back in those days killing all those civilians but they were notified every day for nine
13:16days before they dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima that to get out that something was going to happen that
13:24had never happened in the world before and they could not survive now whether they stayed in defiance of
13:33that or whether the military and government made them safe we never did know but it wasn't his fault what
13:40I remember more than that is this the surrender and that was a great great day in the lives of all
13:50servicemen that day I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Pops Dam Decoration which specifies the
13:58unconditional surrender of Japan in the reply there is no qualification we got back from Guantanamo Bay around
14:10the 15th of December and we pulled into Charleston South Carolina and I decided that hey I'll just hitchhike
14:20to get home and I caught a I caught a ride out of Memphis to Tupelo Mississippi like most people everybody
14:32would say they're glad to see you and so glad you survived and you're getting back home and the things
14:38will get back to normal but you're talking about being in uniform we got out of those uniforms as fast
14:44as we could because and for 40 months that's all I could wear the mission of the Quilts of Valor
14:58Foundation is to cover service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing quilts of
15:04valor visit qovf.org for more information if you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen
15:13in one of our episodes or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode log on to our website
15:19operationhealingheroes.org
15:21operation healing heroes is brought to you by power pole wiley x and by recon boats
15:33with the surrender of japan on september 2nd 1945 it marked the end of world war ii estimated at more
15:46than 50 million deaths the most violent military conflict in human history had concluded at last
15:55so now you're back home it's after the war tell me about the first time that you laid eyes on linda gurley
16:01well i got home in december the 23rd
16:06and uh we had what you call a 5220 club every service man that got discharged could get 20 a week
16:16for a year well in 1945 46 20 was a lot of money you know especially to service people so i said well
16:27what's the use of going back to work i can stay at my daddy's house and know how to pay any rent
16:33and get my food i'll just i'll just i'll just well in february the man i'd work for come to my house
16:41he said when are you going back to work i said well i hadn't thought much about it you know and he said
16:48be at the office in the morning at eight o'clock i said okay so i went up there and i saw this little
16:54lady sitting over there beautiful young lady and i made my mind up then that's the girl i'm on there
17:03and it took me two weeks to ask her for the first date and we had we had a long long courtship
17:11we decided that we was going to get married and we got married on our 12th date that was a long
17:18time you know and i i hadn't told you this either i proposed to her in a cemetery
17:27i don't know what we were doing there it was a saturday morning
17:33then after we were married for a while she told me that she told the people in the office that she's
17:37gonna marry me too so it was love the lord the lord put us together there amen and it was it was a
17:45great marriage i had a wonderful wonderful wife and gave me three wonderful children and i i think
17:53about that i think about that a lot if you want to know the truth i went through a depression where a
18:00lot of people a lot of people died of starvation i went through world war ii where millions were killed
18:09no harm and got home and i still didn't know the lord got married and she'd asked me to go to church
18:20with her and i i hey back in those days for me the weekends were playing made for me to play baseball and
18:27i couldn't understand why people didn't come see me play my ego was about this high and then but she kept
18:34praying for three years and then i found the lord and that was that was the the highlight of my time at
18:45that time was finding the lord and the older i get the more i wonder about what heaven's gonna be and i
18:54i don't have a clue but i know it's gonna be paradise and somebody said well where's paradise
19:02wherever jesus is wherever jesus is is paradise and i love it i got a little something i want to
19:10give to you for your time today and for sharing your story with us so what i have for you right here
19:16is a baseball bat that was custom made for you and it it says here custom made in honor of george
19:22hamilton world war ii navy veteran and that's a red white and blue baseball bat for you
19:31oh wow hey that's something that is something and no baseball player is complete without their own
19:40jersey right yeah so we got you your own jersey your operation healing heroes jersey and
19:45we got your name on the back of it hey hey that's funny you know all the time i was coaching the
19:53church softball team uh after i was 90 where they started putting my number each year they changed my
20:02number to my age well now you got one that says you're 101 and there's something about that third
20:08cylinder right hey see that that's what i say that's how i tell people i'm 101 101 i love it
20:31if you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes
20:34or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode log on to our website operationhealingheroes.org
20:41and click on the nominate button
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