The Mansion section of Friday’s Wall Street Journal includes Marc Myers’s edited interview with the actor Wendell Pierce. It seemed to me an unlikely place to “house” this particular interview. I only came across it because of the featured Mansion story on privately owned Frank Lloyd Wright houses, of which the Twin Cities area has several.
Pierce’s credits include TV’s The Wire and Treme, the films Ray and Malcolm X, and the 2022 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman. He currently stars in Prime Video’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. In the interview Pierce talks about his father, Amos Pierce, in what seems to me a perfect warm-up for Independence Day:
During World War II, my father’s unit was decorated for helping to win the Battle of Saipan, known as the Pacific D-Day. They supplied the Marines on the front lines from June 15 to July 9, 1944, enabling American forces to take the largest of the Mariana Islands.
My dad, Amos, asked a white Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps officer if he qualified for medals as well. She said, “No, not you,” even though his unit came under steady bombardment by mortar shells and his efforts had been vital to the victory.
At home, Dad never once let bitterness overwhelm him nor did he stop loving his country. The same was true about his second battle—the civil-rights movement. He taught me about bravery and courage in the face of fear, not anger and resentment.
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Today, I have homes in New York and Los Angeles but spend most of my time in New Orleans. My father is now 98, so I’m able to enjoy precious time with him. I helped rebuild the neighborhood’s houses and replaced his.
In 2009, my mother asked me to look into my father’s medals. I discovered he was entitled to six. The WAC officer had lied. The Army presented them to him at the World War II Museum in New Orleans later that year.
My brother, Ron, pinned on his medals. At the gala, my father was called to the stage. I braced for bitterness, but he simply said, “What I remember most are the many who died there.” Then he straightened up, saluted and said, “God bless America.” I was in tears.
I found the whole interview of interest, but that hit home. Myers’s interview is here.