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Contact Rev. Edgar Peara

A Short Autobiography

I was born in Moline, IL July 22, 1921 and named Conrad Edgar Westling. My mother was Grace Bernice Child, my father, A. Conrad Westling. Later [1926] my mother divorced my father and married my stepfather, A.T.Peara, who adopted me and renamed me Edgar Child Peara.
My high school years [1934-39] were at Western Military Academy, [Alton, IL]. There I was the Honor Student of my class, a cadet captain in the corps, earned 11 letters in football, soccer, track [mile run], and rifle team. I earned a reserve commission as a 2nd Lt in the Infantry which could not be valid until I became 21, or there was a national emergency.
I attended The Principia College, Elsah, IL for one quarter and then had to drop out for lack of money. I worked and then the following fall [1940] went to Iowa State College, Ames, IA as an architectural engineering student.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked, I volunteered for active duty.  I was then called to serve as a platoon commander
and assistant company commander in Co. C of the lst Bn of the 531 Amphibious Combat Regiment of the 1st Engineer Amphibious Combat Brigade.  We trained at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, MA and went overseas to Northern Ireland in August, 1942. In Ireland I was promoted to 1st Lt. and made the Adjutant of the 1st Battalion of the 531 Regiment.  Our first campaign was to spearhead the invasion of Algeria in Nov. 1942.
Going through the Straits of Gibraltar the night before that first invasion, the N. African campaign I felt great fear about what we might face the next morning in the landing. I reminded myself that all the waters in the world, couldn't sink a boat, even a canoe, IF it didn't take any water in. Then, I felt if I could keep fear out of my mind, I could keep bullets out of my body. I did that by reminding myself that right at that moment the night before the invasion when I was on the deck of the attack transport, I was OK, safe, secure. I made the effort to FEEL that quiet security, But then the fear of the next morning kept creeping back in. I would go back to the reality of my safety at that time until I could feel secure again. I did this over and over until the safe feeling stayed with me. And then I mentally imagined, identified and associated that safe feeling with the beach in Algeria where I knew we were going to land the next morning. I kept this up until I felt calm and fearless. That took over two hours. At the end of that time all fear had been dissipated and I was able to quietly go peacefully to sleep. The next morning I felt fearless about the landing. Happily where we went ashore there was no resistance and thus all of us were safe.
A couple of days after the invasion as we were facilitating the landing of troops and material in the port of Arzew, there would be intermittent shots fired which would cause the suspension of the landing. I was ordered to take a platoon of men and silence whatever was giving rise to the interfering gunfire.  Though a combat engineer officer I did not feel that violent, military action was a good way to resolve disputes between nations. My strongly influential Sunday school training in Christian Science made me feel that the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" really was meant to be observed, even though I was in the army in wartime.
I felt that the real enemies were not foreign soldiers so much as they were noxious systems, National Socialism [Nazism in Germany], Fascism in Italy, and Imperialism in Japan. Thus I felt that if I acknowledged that and endeavored to oppose them MENTALLY by affirming that persons were meant to be governed by democracy, then I would not have to fight the foreign soldiers with weapons of war.
As you read in the account in Arzew, Algeria, I was able to go from house to house, telling the occupants that "We come in peace. We are not here to harm anyone. We simply want you to surrender any weapons so that all armed resistance ceases." No one gave us any trouble and we collected so many arms we could hardly carry them all.
That attitude then became my uniform mindset during all the other campaigns in which I participated in WWII.
After Algeria we went to Tunisia with Gen. George Patton. At the end of the Tunisian campaign we went back to the Algiers area to get replacements and new equipment for the invasion of Sicily.  The first year I was overseas I felt displeased and unhappy about being away from home and in the war. I kept wishing the war was over. And then I began to realize that I couldn't know when the war would be over and a return to home would occur. But I knew that I was living right then and there was some good to be experienced and enjoyed in the living present. And I then made a conscious effort to look for and be grateful for whatever there was to be appreciated that day - whether it was food, a dry place to sleep, reasonable weather [when it was good], friendships with some of my comrades, being well and safe and all the other tangible phenomena that were in my experience as I was living it then. That change in attitude helped make me a happier person, for I stopped thinking that my contentment had to lie in the future when the war was over. I took advantage of every opportunity to do any sight-seeing wherever we might be.
For example on the trip from Tunisia to Algeria we were in the old 40 [men] or 8 [horses] boxcars associated with France in WWI. I remember enjoying the summer scenery, fields covered with white, yellow, orange wild flowers, - sometimes the tracks led through orange orchards, and the perfume of the blossoms was fragrant. It was a restful, pleasant trip even though there weren't any comforts or special food just C rations.
I was happy because I could focus on enjoying the living present instead of longing for the unknown future when I could sleep in a bed, have a hot shower or a malted milk or Hershey bar.
In Algeria we got new equipment and replacements and sailed from Algeria to invade Sicily at Gena [the central task force] and were there until all of Sicily was captured and secured.
We then returned to Algeria again to get reequipped and sailed to make the Italian invasion at "Bloody" Salerno. We were in Italy until the Volterno River crossing, north of Naples, and then were shipped back to Algeria, and then to England to prepare for the Normandy, D-Day invasion.  During the hurry-up-and-wait time between invasions, when we were moving to new sites or training for the next campaign there was free time.  I used most of it to study religion and spirituality so that as the war continued I eventually realized that I wanted to make a career of religion rather than continue what had been my pre-war education as an architectural engineer.  And so, when I got out of the army I returned to college under the G-Bill and had the training which enabled me to become a Christian Science Practitioner.
During the Korean War I was the Christian Science Chaplain at the US Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, IL. During that time I was married and over a period of seven years had four sons. Eventually I felt the need to be in a more open, liberal faith and became a Unitarian Universalist Minister. I trained at Meadville/Lombard Theological School at the U. of Chicago graduating in June, 1962.
I then served two churches in Springfield and Chester Depot, Vt. and was later called to the Lake Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Wilmette, IL in 1967. During that time I met my present wife, Phyllis and we were married in Aug. 1970.
In 1988 I was called to the UU church in Park Forest, IL and served until Dec. 1998. In 2000 I served as a interim minister in the UU church in Auckland, New Zealand.  The next year my forth son, Andrew who is the Director of Nearby Nature in Eugene, suggested that we move to "paradise." We agreed that we would when we found a house close to his and got one eight houses from him and moved to Eugene in Sept. 2001.

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