Preface
Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.
–DOUGLAS MACARTHUR
WHEN MY FATHER, Howard Louis Peckham, was a boy, he often imagined himself dressed in a gray cadet uniform, marching in cadence on a vast parade ground. Because he was an excellent student, especially in arithmetic, Howard could easily picture himself attending mathematics classes taught by a knowledgeable instructor.
Howard Peckham was born on May 29, 1897, in Norwich, a lovely harbor city located in the southeastern part of Connecticut, adjacent to the confluence of the Yantic, Thames, and Shetucket Rivers. It was an ideal fishing area, a fact that Howard and his younger brother, Oliver, took advantage of as much as possible. After an afternoon of successful fishing, they would eagerly bring their catch home, where their mother, the former Frances Lila Beckwith, would clean it and prepare it for dinner. Frances was an outstanding cook, so she used just the right amount of parsley, salt, pepper, and other spices to sprinkle on top of the fish before popping it into the oven.
Howard also seemed to enjoy doing chores for his dad, Frank Everett Peckham, who ran a flourishing truck farming business. Dad would fill to the brim large straw baskets of tomatoes, corn, lettuce, celery, and other vegetables—as well as flowers such as colorful zinnias and marigolds—that he had helped to plant and pick. Frank would then sell this delectable and fragrant produce to local markets.
Dad wasn’t interested in truck farming as a profession for himself, however. He also didn’t want to spend all his life in one location. Instead, he felt attracted to the more adventurous and less settled life of a U.S. Army man. After graduating from the Norwich Free Academy, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, thus fulfilling his dream of an army career. That career would take him all over the world, but his binding loyalty and love for the ideals of his alma mater, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in November 1918, continued. (It was at West Point, decades later, that General Douglas MacArthur spoke the famous words that appear at the beginning of this Preface.)
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