Uncle Gene in the Moment

Uncle Gene was the favorite uncle. He was not the obnoxious center-of-attention relative who always knew best and was more than vocal about his opinion on everything. Nor was he the Black Sheep who all the others whispered about when they thought none of the kids was listening.

He was also not the expert on Washington politics, but he was quietly reserved when watching the wrinkling foreheads of the television news anchors who were trying to influence the moment and dominate the television airwaves. Uncle Gene was the man who was living above the noise in that quiet place where deep faith truly offers salvation and focus.

Granny said that was because Uncle Gene had been in the military. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the news of “The Day of Infamy” came marching through the speaker on the family radio, Eugene was a teenager, and after the news, he was out in the yard with grandpa who was teaching him how to march—just as the patriarch had to learn as a youngster in World War I.

Uncle Gene grew into a man during the Battle of Okinawa, when he was a soldier in the US Army. The bloody conflict was the biggest battle for the army in the Pacific Theater and became known as the Typhoon of Steel. During the 82 days of one of the biggest battles of the war, over 49,000 US soldiers gave their lives to defend and honor the American idea of freedom.

Because Uncle Gene was six-foot-four when he was marching through that embattled island, and a head and shoulders taller than most, a Japanese sniper chose him as a target from his hidden perch. The sniper’s bullet struck the shoulder of the American who was very far from his home in the mountains of East Tennessee, but in that fateful moment, the shot that wounded but did not take a life began to shape the lives of others for generations to come.

After his sniper wound became a scar and the fractured Japanese bullet became pieces of a keepsake he would carry forever, Uncle Gene learned that he loved the army and that the US Army loved him. He excelled in the ranks and became a Sergeant Major. His first posting as an attaché to the diplomat in Ankara, Turkey lasted several years. Upon arrival, and because of his outstanding height and his shaved head—because of early baldness—he and his young wife soon became aware that the people of Turkey were convinced he was the dashing American actor Yul Brynner in disguise as a Sergeant Major in the US Army.

After leaving their beloved Turkey—where Turkish became a second language—Uncle Gene and his wife Irene moved to Fort Gordon, Georgia. This posting was brief and only long enough for Irene to settle before the Yul Brynner look-alike was on an airplane heading to Southeast Asia and the Republic of Vietnam.

In Saigon, the formidable and well-seasoned Sergeant Major was once again in the assigned position as an attaché to the American embassy. In his spare time, the American, who was towering over the local Vietnamese, enrolled in the University of Saigon and earned a degree in French as a third language.

Throughout his career as a Sergeant Major, Eugene Fields was the soldier who began his day well before dawn at the ironing board where the meticulous, sharp seams in his fatigues became the signature of his immaculate uniform.

After twenty-five years in the army, with his final posting as second-in-command at Fort Gordon, Uncle Gene retired from the US Army. Immediately afterward, he began to apply his skills in discipline, life coaching, and leadership at a local high school where the dropout rate was the highest, the grade point average the lowest, and violence in the classroom was such that any qualified teacher was afraid to go to work.

After a rocky start, the only teacher not of color soon became the favorite, where a kind word, encouragement, and parables from the Bible were the newest weapons to defeat pessimism and anger on a different kind of battlefield.

At every family Christmastime celebration, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July, Uncle Gene was the quiet but towering figure in the background. He was the relative who talked the least, offered the kindest words, and only laughed when the rest of the blowhard men were bragging about new cars, wealth, and brilliant business deals. Disparaging comments about Washington politics or local affairs that were dominating the gossip circles were not important to Uncle Gene.

After studying carefully the behaviors of all the relatives over many years, Uncle Gene stood head and shoulders higher than all the family members and easily became the favorite of a particular Marco Beach Boy.

One day, when the particular Marco Beach Boy was at work and busy with the daily details of everyday life, he suddenly looked down and saw two bare feet standing on the deck of a Marco charter boat. In that unforgettable moment, he knew suddenly, his feet with the tan and sandy toes, were exactly like his Uncle Gene's. During that realization, everything Uncle Gene came as an overwhelming wave of distinctive presence and spirit that passed through the essence of everything, just for one moment, when a passing spirit came to touch and leave a little behind.

Later that day, the call came and Uncle Gene’s funeral was two days later. At the funeral home, everyone in the family was overwhelmed by a group of Uncle Gene’s former students who drove 200 miles to honor the soldier they loudly and repeatedly proclaimed had changed their lives.