| My dad, Norman P Sprague, was a Iwo Jima | | | | was also involved in the town, as a town planning |
| veteran. Although he told me very little about his | | | | board chairman, auditor at the People's Methodist |
| exploits in the South Pacific, while I was growing | | | | Church, adjutant of the W. T. Wren American |
| up, he did talk about being on the first boat | | | | Legion Post and numerous other activities in the |
| ashore, on more than one occasion. When I read | | | | community. |
| the book, "Flags of our Fathers" by James | | | | Norman was a hard working family man. One of |
| Bradley, recently, I was there with my father, | | | | our neighbors, Carlton Moore, once said that dad |
| too, as I imagined how it would have been. | | | | was the Mayor of "Little Woodland". This was due |
| Bradley had such an excellent way of presenting | | | | mostly to the fact that our section of town had |
| the novel and he described it wonderfully. Later, I | | | | the best roads and street lighting, especially after |
| also saw the film but I enjoyed the book, best of | | | | his annual spiels at Town Meeting. Dad was good |
| all. It helped me to understand why dad never | | | | at convincing the townspeople what should be |
| talked much about his time there, from so many | | | | their needed expenditures. He was also influencial |
| years ago. | | | | as in his duties as an excellent union negotiator at |
| During World War II, as a fighting marine, dad had | | | | his employer. I can't imagine what dad would say |
| witnessed a horror, unimaginable to most. Not | | | | about the conditions at the mill today, under the |
| only on Iwo Jima but at Bougainville, Guadacanal | | | | current owners. I can't help but think that he |
| and the Solomon Islands, Tarawa, Okinawa, and all | | | | probably would have made a difference. |
| the other places, that the 3rd Marine Division took | | | | Dad rarely spoke of his marine days from |
| him, as he faced so much danger and destruction. | | | | wartime, but later in his life, while being treated |
| Shortly after he returned home from the service, | | | | for lung cancer, the medication seemed to bring |
| he married my mom, Janice Williams, in Boston. | | | | some of his long buried memories, to the surface. |
| After living in Quincy, Massachusetts for a while, | | | | He became more open minded about some of |
| they moved to the old homestead in Woodland, | | | | the things that he had depressed far deep into his |
| Maine, in the town of Baileyville. My parents lived | | | | memory. At that time, he started to have |
| with my grandfather, Ralph Sprague, until his | | | | nightmares and bad headaches from his |
| death in 1958. They raised us four children there. | | | | recollections of the past. |
| We were brought up in a semi-rural area of Maine | | | | I understand that I had been named john, after |
| that was peaceful, safe and it was a comfortable | | | | one of his marine buddies, that had died over |
| life for us there. We even had a summer cottage | | | | there, in a foxhole with him. I wish that I had |
| at a nearby lake, where we spent our summer | | | | asked for more details, about those |
| vacations, when school was recessed for summer | | | | circumstances and about the details of his good |
| vacation, in early June. It was a great place to | | | | friend, while dad was still alive. He was my hero |
| spend a childhood, we believed. | | | | but I don't think he knew that fact. |
| Dad worked at the St Croix Paper Company. This | | | | While in Iraq, I had the occasion to travel with the |
| was where most of his brothers were also | | | | Japanese Air Force on a C-130 transport. My first |
| employed. Norman worked as a timekeeper, in | | | | thought was, "Dad would be rolling over in his |
| the mill office. He referred to himself as a "pencil | | | | grave", just seeing me on this aircraft, flying with |
| pusher" if someone were to ask what he did for | | | | his former adversaries. Of course, the Japanese |
| a living. While in Boston, he had spent time at | | | | were now helping to move US soldiers and |
| Bentley School of Accounting and enjoyed that | | | | contractors, into the current war. Time changes |
| type of occupation. | | | | everything, it seems, and those former enemies, |
| He helped organize the first office union and was | | | | are now our friends. |
| also a trustee of the St Croix Credit Union. He | | | | |