On April 19, 1945, my father and his classmates at St. John High School in Bancroft, Iowa, were startled by a church bell ringing at the nearby Catholic church. The parish priest rang the bell at his first knowledge of the passing of one of his parishioners—one bell for every year of that person’s life. On that day, the bell rang 20 times. Though he hadn’t been officially notified, my father and all his classmates knew that his brother, Tommy, had been killed in the war. They called him a hero. But the people of the “Garden Spot of Iowa,” a town of 727, had another reaction, captured by Harold Clark, editor of the Bancroft Register, in a poem entitled “Tommy."

Don’t say a world moved, a nation rose on Tommy’s death.

Just say he smiles no more and he is cold as winter’s breath.

He is no more. Though he was youth, his story ends.

He did the things he must for home and friends.
And that is all.

Don’t say he gave his life, or sought the light of some ideal.

At twenty, men don’t wish to give a thing so real.

Just say his life was snatched before the start.
Because the world said, “Do your duty. Bare your heart.”

And that is all.

Don’t prate of mock heroics.
Only briefly say

He did the thing he had to do.
He fought that day.
To live.
He lost a game he’d hoped to win.
Because conventions say, “You fight or sin.”

And that is all.

Won’t say we’re proud he died for this, our cause.
Or that there’s compensation in applause
From fellow men.
Just say we love him now as then
And pray youth won’t be sacrificed again.
Let that be all.

The historic Bancroft Memorial Baseball Park, which opened for play in 1948 on land donated in part by my grandfather, Art Murray, and financed with the G.I. life insurance payment for Uncle Tommy, is dedicated to all soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for this country. The Bancroft American Legion is synonymous with Memorial Park and Bancroft baseball since that inaugural game 70 years ago, and even long before that time. The Bancroft American Legion team won Iowa State Championships in 1936, 1943, 1945, 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1962.

The Bancroft American Legion continues to support Memorial Park with an annual Veterans’ Game and an Annual Avenue of Flags presentation on Memorial Day and July 4, in honor of 115 deceased veterans.

Tommy Murray is the author of the novel, "Fathers, Sons, and the Holy Ghosts of Baseball."