Sedalia News Journal

John Walje photo

Battleship Missouri
The USS Missouri in its final resting place. For a brief period during the President Reagan administration (1983) the USS Missouri was taken out of mothballs where it served as a museum ship in Bremerton, Washington and was refitted and put back into service. Here the USS Missouri can be seen resting peacfully in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Dear John...
By Webmaster T.
If you only knew how many times I heard "Dear John" as the letters came pouring in after a few months at sea!

John Walje IV strikes again with some fabulous photos from Hawaii.

John writes, "Since you mentioned Pearl Harbor I thought I would send you my pictures from there. The big ship in one of the pictures is the USS Missouri. The individual I am posing with is Bill Pope, a Pearl Harbor survivor."

John is a 2006 graduate of Central Missouri and he writes to us from Chaminade University of Honolulu where he is currently attending graduate school. Although spending his days and nights in beautiful Hawaii, John reports that never-the-less, he is missing his hometown of Sedalia, Missouri.

I gotta' tell ya' John... you are standing on one of the most beautiful places on the entire planet earth and yet it truly say's alot when you tell us how much you are missing your hometown of Sedalia, Missouri. I have been in your sneakers and seen these very same places while serving in the U.S. Navy. I was last in Pearl Harbor during 1984. During this same era, I watched the USS Missouri being taken out of mothballs at my ships' homeport of Bremerton, Washington. I was standing on the pier as she sat sail for the first time after being ordered out of the mothball fleet.

Prior to joining the Navy, I was one of those "hippie-kids" that never had a kind word to say about my hometown of Sedalia. That was until I too began missing it from the other side of the world. I joined the Navy just to get the heck out of what I considered then to be this god-forsaken place. And then... I missed it and terribly so. I know exactly how you are feeling buddy!

To this very day, I commonly hear people say, "Sedalia sucks." Who am I to judge? I too was guilty of spewing those very same words until I saw the rest of the world. Since my Navy days, I have been three-quarters of the way around the globe and back again. I have been to 49 of the 50 United States, and today, I will be the first to tell anyone, "there is no place like home."

Sedalia is one of those towns that it's easy to get spoiled in without even realizing it. When you grow up here, one tends to take all the wonderful things about Sedalia for granted. The great parks, the sights and scenery, the sound of trains and church bells, either of which you can set your clocks by. The State Fair, the shopping, the historical aspects, the food, the flowers, the diverse variety of industry, the friendly folks, the many charities and organizations, the many and varied events that go on all year 'round, the parades, the sports games, the view from atop Washington School when you're the lucky kid that got chosen to retrieve and throw down all the missing kickballs... all these things, just are, when you grow up with them right down the street from you.

You don't really know how great Sedalia is until you've been out of it for awhile and seen lots of other places.

I for one, have come to love my hometown of Sedalia as a result of missing it dearly more than once.

You would not believe the numbers of past Sedalia residents that we hear from due to them hitting our site and missing this "God-forsaken" town also! Our site gets hits from past Sedalia residents that are now living in nearly every state in the union. I have yet to hear even one of them tell me that they don't miss Sedalia.

Perhaps it's because, as the say, "the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree." I have spent years in other states so I know that my missing Sedalia is not merely because it's familiar territory. I am familiar with a number of cities, both large and small. I have come to realize that it's the people of this area that are unique and special. It's the people that keep me coming back for more. You can get out of Sedalia, but you can never get Sedalia out of you. You'll be home soon buddy.

Thanks again John! There are a lot of old-salts and shellbacks around here that will appreciate your photos. Of course, when we were in the Navy, ships still had sails!

Keep the powder dry brother...

Webmaster T.

John Walje photo

John Walje IV with Bill Pope
John Walje IV, left, is seen here with Bill Pope, right, a Pearl Harbor survivor.

John Walje photo