Glenn, Roland

Roland Glenn was born June 5, 1924; he grew up in small town Pennsylvania, against the backdrop of the Great Depression.  He recalls a good childhood, where his family raised him with love and positive energy, in a time when that was in short supply for many Americans.  His father and grandfather had instilled him with patriotic, community-oriented values, so when Pearl Harbour took place, Roland’s path became clear.  He was inducted into the army, and off to boot camp, first to Maryland and then to Camp Wheeler and Fort Benning.  Trained as an officer, 2nd Lieutenant Roland Glenn was shipped to Pearl Harbour, and then on to Saipan.  The next destination would be Okinawa, where Roland would experience his baptism by fire.  The men were loaded on to landing crafts, and they hit the beaches, moving inland to join the fighting on the front lines.  Roland met his new commanding officer, and soon after his platoon; he learned that he’d be replacing an officer who had been killed the day before.  They learned they’d be going into combat, in concert with an armoured group.  Roland’s description of what he saw in those two weeks of fighting is vivid and intense, as is his description of the events that followed.  When the battle finished, the men began to train for the invasion of the Japanese homeland, which Roland did not expect to survive.  But the atomic bomb brought all that to an end, and Roland and his men were shipped to Korea, as part of the army of occupation.  There Roland had the chance to work with the Japanese, and to transform enemies into friends, essential to his healing from the war.  Roland returned home and was able to reunite with his family and his cousin Corky, who had served in the navy during the war.  On a family trip to Atlantic City, Roland met his future wife, and not too long after, they ended up in New York for a while, where he befriended the artist Feodor Rimsky and sought the counsel of a psychologist, all of which furthered his path of healing.  Roland continued that with his own education, and then with a career in education that led him to us, when Roland zoomed with Crestwood students in January 2021.