Looking Ahead

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis The Passing of a neighbor, Capt .Thomas Liggett, USMC ret. Capt. Thomas Liggett, USMC ret, died on Sunday, January 6, 2013, at age 94, in a Riverdale hospice. Best known to our East Side community as a United Nations observer, he was , since 1970, the publisher and editor of World Peace News, a one-man organization also known for its annual World Peace Seminars, which attracted likeminded speakers from all parts of the world. Tom Liggett, a New Yorker, after graduating NYU in 1941, enlisted in the US Navy pilot program. By the time the new 2nd Lieutenant brought his SBD Dauntless attack/scout /dive bomber to Guadalcanal, the war in the Pacific was in full action, with Japanese cruisers bombing during the day and Japanese airplanes attacking at night. Kamikaze attacks were frequent, and of the 80 newcomers to the air command in 1943 only 13 survived unscathed, Moved to the F4F Corsair, Tom’s VMF512 USMC squadron was trained for the European war, particularly to attack the German V-1 rocket sites alongside the English Channel that were destroying British cities and the national morale. Only after the war he found out for sure that the Marine pilots were being prepared for Kamikaze suicide missions, and that the training was discontinued when the Secretary of War Gen. George C. Marshal , eventually the author of the peace plan, stopped the action in principle. Tom continued bombing the Japanese positions from the board the new USS Gilbert Islands, in Borneo and the Philippines, when he was injured and moved to serve on land, eventually as CO of the Naval Air Station in Goleta, Sta Barbara County, where Navy pilots received final training. He ended the war service in California, with a Distinguished Flying Cross and several air medals, got married and brought up two daughters, while editing newspapers, teaching writing and writing a distinguished children’s book, Pigeon Fly Home (1956). But peace and man’s inhumanity to man was on his mind, as it was for many likeminded people who saw action in WWII, and in 1970 the modern day Aeneas decided to break fresh ground, come back East and dedicate the rest of his life to peace, monitoring the actions at the United Nations, moving them towards peaceful initiatives, with a thought to world government, and recording his and their associates’ observations by publishing a monthly, World Peace News. It was an efficient busy publication, largely printing edited reports and correspondents’ notes, attracting many national and international activists. The names of some of the participants in the WPN Annual Conferences in 30 plus years alone indicate the caliber of thought. To mention a few, the speakers included the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh of Notre Dame, Prof Otto Nathan of NYU (Albert Einstein’s closest friend and collaborator) Isaac Asimov , Roger Nash Baldwin (ACLU), Jean Baugniet, David Brower, Norman Cousins, Luther H. Evans, Max Habicht, Hari Vishnu Kamath, Jean Roche, Zenon Rossides, Harold Taylor (University of Chicago),Alfred de Grazia ((Velikovsky Catastrophism scholar) George S. Wise: Mildred Blake, William H. D. Cox, Jr.(founder of the American Movement for World Government, he was a co-publisher of the World Peace News), Carl Frost, Ralph M. Goldman, ,Charles Guettel, Henry L. H anson, Tom Hudgens, John Kiang, Carmel Kussman, Mortimer Lipsky, William Bross Lloyd, Jr.,Guy Marchand, Lilian T. Mowrer, Stewart Ogilvy, Josephine Rubin, Bennet Skewes-Cox, Alfred C. Williams, and Edith Wynner of the Rosika Schwimmer World Peace organization. This family became friends of Tom and Sue Liggetts’ through membership in Charles Kinsolving’s Murray Hill Reform Democratic Club. We had a joint interest in hiking in NYS great forests, and Tom Liggett’s great enthusiasm for kayaks. The great Klepper Fold-Boat vendor in the US was on Union Square, and Tom kept their four-seater kayak in his trunk, assembling it every weekend. We cruised the Jamaica Bay many times, staying overnight in some of the gull and duck rich islands, watched all night by the male guards who occasionally ventured into dive attacks to scare away the tent people. As our ages advanced, interests and strengths changed, and eventually touching base with each other became limited to holiday greetings. It was therefore with great regrets that we received Sue Liggett’s call of the sad news. Our condolences to Sue and daughters Judith and Rosanne (please address Sue Nancy Liggett, 300 E. 33 Street, apt. 7P, NY, NY 10016). Further news will follow as received (please address wally@ix.netcom.com)

Labels: Charles Kinsolving, Edith Wynner, Isaac Asimov, Jr., Otto Nathan, SDB Dauntless, Theodore Hesburgh, Thomas Liggett, William. H. D. Cox