Joel F. Goodwin, Sr., U.S. Army

We had crossed the Rhine, captured Germany, the Third Army, General George Patton and I. Now the war was over in Europe but not in Japan. The weapons that I was trained in were very special and twelve battalions were pulled out of Europe with A.A. priority to go to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan.

On our way to Japan we came back through the United States. I was on 30 day leave at home when the U.S. Air Force dropped the "Bomb". Needless to say, we didn't have to make the invasion.

I had a few months more to serve my country, so when they asked for volunteers for Army recruiting duty, sergeants and higher with combat experience, I volunteered, especially to get out of Ft. Polk, Louisiana in August.

We were offered our choice of where to serve. It was first Dallas then, Oklahoma City and finally Tulsa. I reported to Tulsa from Oklahoma City in a new staff car ready to recruit men for the U.S. Army. We were living in the Trimble Hotel in downtown Tulsa, just across the street from the Federal Building. I was proud of my job and my position. I was one of the top recruiters for the U.S. Army in the state of Oklahoma. If you could sell the Army at the end of a four-year war, you could sell anything. Ha! That was when the Captain and the Colonel tried to talk me into a career in the Army.

I did not want to make a career of the Army, neither did I want to go back to my job in the Potash mines in N.M. I was only twenty years old at this time. As I thought about my future, I realized God had spared me in the war but I had no education and my future was rather uncertain. I was asking the Lord to give me guidance in one-way or another.

Standing waiting for the light to change to cross the street to my office, I Looked up into the beautiful blue sky and a word began to appear, letter by letter as if an airplane was writing in smoke. The word was DENTISTRY. I looked around me thinking I was losing my mind. As I looked back up in the sky the word was still there. It was not DENTIST, it was DENTISTRY.

In the years since that day, I have realized God was calling me to a greater cause than just myself.

One of the most memorable things that happened while I was in the service was in eastern France on Palm Sunday 1945. We were ready to breach the Siegfried Line, cross the Rhine and strike at the heart of Hitler's Germany .. We were apprehensive to say the least but as I attended Chapel services that day, a young Chaplain, a "Captain", a "Free Methodist" from North Carolina preached one of the most assuring messages I had ever heard. My father being A Baptist preacher, I knew what reassurance from the Bible meant. This man preached a sermon of reassurance like my father or a Baptist preacher would do. I felt the hand of the Lord on me when I left the tent that day and my assurance was positive. Palm Sunday has always had a special meaning to me ever since that day.

Joel F. Goodwin, Sr., D.D.S.