Book tells story of local war hero in his own words

Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Booklovers, history buffs and others simply interested in learning more about early Monticello and its native sons will want to attend the book-signing event that local author R. A. Sheats will hold this weekend.
Set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 30, at the Chamber of Commerce building on 420 W. Washington Street, the signing will feature copies of Sheats’ latest book, titled “Never Too Late.”
Sheats’ story focuses on Colonel Theodore J. Sledge, a Monticello native and war hero, some of whose relatives still reside here. Sledge served under General George Patton in World War I and was awarded the Legion of Merit for his service under Generals Douglas MacArthur and Jonathan Wainwright in World War II.
Sledge, not incidentally, was the uncle and adoptive father of Dr. Jim Sledge, himself a well-known county native and the main force behind the erection of the Sgt. Ernest “Boots” Thomas Memorial on West Washington. Of which memorial he remains the chief keeper.
Thomas, whose story Sheats tells in an earlier book, was a close boyhood friend of Jim Sledge and a hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima, where he participated in the raising of the first American flag on the Pacific island, before being killed in battle days later.
Like the letters, photos and memorabilia of Thomas that Jim Sledge saved and that Sheats used to write the earlier book, she likewise takes advantage of a slew of letters, diaries, photos and other mementoes that Sledge has kept of his uncle to tell this latest story.
Born in December 1884 – “Teddy”, as Theodore Sledge was nicknamed – was the eldest of nine children born to Harriett “Hattie” Amanda Bishop and James Amos Sledge, a longtime Jefferson County family whose roots dated from the early 1800s and that was prominent enough to have the elder Sledge serve two terms in the Florida Legislature.
A graduate of Monticello Academy, to which he traveled on horseback, Sledge joined the U.S. Army at age 19 in 1904, was promoted to sergeant in 1911, married in 1916 and became a father in 1917.
In the same year as his daughter Helen was born, Sledge was commissioned a second lieutenant and shipped to Europe to join the French and British forces in their fight against the Germans in WWI. At the time, Sledge was one of 20 cavalry officers assigned to what was then Patton’s fledgling tank corps, forming the cadre of what would eventually become Patton’s Armored Division in WWII.
Interestingly, while engaged in Europe, Sledge’s wife, Edith Lally Armstrong, died at age 28 of the Spanish flu, the equivalent of today’s pandemic. Cases of the disease, in fact, were documented in Monticello at the time, reminiscent of today’s situation.
The book goes on to trace Sledge’s years in the military between the wars and his rise in rank. Meanwhile, his younger brother Lamar, Jim Sledge’s father, was elected sheriff in 1932 and killed while making an arrest in 1934, prompting Sledge to step in as Jim’s adoptive father.
By the time World War II arrived, Sledge was a lieutenant colonel stationed in the Philippines, where Jim joined him for about a year’s visit. Sensing a powder keg situation developing, Sledge sent Jim back to the states and himself was transferred Corregidor, or “The Rock,” a system of tunnels in the mountains where the American Command was headquartered.
Sledge was promoted to full colonel in March 1942, and as history records, Corregidor fell to the Japanese a little more than a month later, leading to Sledge’s 3- ½ years of captivity as a Japanese prisoner of war.
Throughout his prison years, Sledge managed to keep up a sporadic correspondence with his family, and was also able to keep a diary, which served as the basis and backbone of Sheats’ story.
Told through anecdotes, snippets of letters and entries in the diary that Sledge kept, as well augmented by Jim Sledge’s reminisces and Sheats’ own research, she weaves a compelling story of the harrowing experiences of a war prisoner in WWII, based on Sledge’s firsthand accounts. The story also sheds light on a period of American history that is fast fading from the consciousness of many.
As for the title, Never Too Late, one has to read the book to understand its meaning.