Seventy-five years ago, the guns went silent on the frontlines of the Second World War.
It was a war in which many Gold Coasters served the cause of the colonial authorities, and a substantial number of soldiers perished in the jungles of the then Burma.
Then a Private in the Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF), Joseph Ashietey Hammond, also saw action like his colleagues returning home only after the end of hostilities.
For the survivors of the ordeal in the jungle and sniper fire of the Japs it was a return to frustration; they were denied the reward they thought they were entitled to after the unquantifiable sacrifices, including the ultimate.
Yesterday, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in a rare feat conferred the honourary rank of Warrant Officer I upon Joseph Hammond, a deserving one of course.
The veteran earned the rank for his exemplary contribution towards the war against an invisible and formidable enemy – Covid-19 – during peacetime, not in the trenches of WWII anyway.
At 95, he treaded the path of British veteran Captain Moore who did a 100-time lap of his garden and raised twenty-three thousand pounds for the ailing National Health Service in Britain which needed such oxygen badly after reeling under Covid-19.
Joseph too embarked upon a similar walk to support the management of the pandemic in the country doing a two-kilometre a day for a week to raise funds to support frontline health workers in Africa and veterans in the Covid-19 fight. His efforts raked in thousands of pounds, a feat which has attracted the attention of the Queen in England.
Such a feat by a nonagenarian should not be denied an honour as the President has done. It is a rare accomplishment by the man who has not lost his sheen even as he nears a century.
He persevered during the weeklong daily walking drill, with his commitment to accomplish his goal providing him with the morale needed for the Osu to Circle and back seven-day ordeal.
It is over now, and we are excited that he achieved his goal.
Recognizing those who sacrifice for the greater good of the country is laudable. The absence of such recognition dampens the spirit of persons who are caught in the web of vacillation as to whether to sacrifice or not.
Just as the Queen honoured Captain Moore in England, our President has done same for our own WOI Hammond. It is never too late to come to the aid of the nation. If a nonagenarian can accomplish the feat of WOI Hammond, we too can.
The spirit of patriotism which pushed him to do what he did is what he has urged us to emulate. What better admonition when this virtue is in short supply.