Does anybody care anymore? Hell, I’m having a hard time finding people who care about 9/11. To me it was yesterday. But I had troops under my command who were born AFTER that day.
My dad was born in 1940. My grandfather was a gunner’s mate on a US Navy destroyer. A year and a half after my father was born, my grandfather would deploy, and the family would see him again two years later when he came home on leave. Then he was gone again. This was the repeating cycle of my father’s life until he was 14.
I’ve been lucky enough to talk to multiple WWII vets throughout my life. But they’re vanishingly rare these days, and can’t do many interviews. Finding Korean vets is just as hard, and the Vietnam vets are in their 70’s and 80’s, and dying off at a fast rate. So much history, just…. gone.
The Day that shall live in Infamy, now relegated to a couple pages in school history books, sandwiched between why white people are evil and how boys can become girls just by saying so.
I’ve been in a melancholy mood for some time now, so forgive me if my posts are brief and infrequent.
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Fun Fact: The first wartime casualties on that fateful December morning were the crew of the Japanese mini sub sunk off the mouth of the harbor by USS Ward (DD-139) about an hour before the planes attacked.
As we were on our annual Christmas tree trek, my granddaughter, 14 years old, reminded us yesterday was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. A number of home and business flags were at half staff. All is not lost.
My late father, born in 1927, recalled that he was with his father in town that Sunday (likely having first attended Mass) and, to learn what had occurred, someone asked my father to turn on the radio in the local barbershop (I believe). It was the first time he’d operated a radio.
Dave, my Dad was a Canadian citizen. He came here with his family and when the war broke out enlisted in the U.S. Army thereby gaining his citizenship. Try as I might (and I did) to get him to talk about his war experiences he would always deflect and just plain clam up.
Years later his sister told us that when my Dad came home he would awaken in night terrors screaming. I know he endured hell on earth. He was in the Philippines and that is all I know with any certainty. When I think of the stories others have told of the atrocities in the Philippines committed by the Japanese I want to weep for all my Dad endured. You have heard of them I am sure. I will never have closure of his agony and possibly even the things he did to bring on the terror.
My eldest son was born on December 7, 1982 and I never have a problem remembering it. What has proven to be over the years a confluence of errors, inaccuracies and outright lies ended up committing our nation to yet another war. We gave it our all and kicked the shit out of the enemy but, at at terrible cost both in treasure (blood) and resources. The evidence of this may be seen on some battlefields and even seashores – ships and other equipment and buildings. War accomplishes nothing but not doing so results in anarchy and dictators. We ultimately made the right choice albeit a painful one for all involved.
My dad was in WWII, but never talked of it, other than some funny stories about he and his pals. Never joined the AmVets, or Veterans of Foreign Wars, or any other vets group. He had his buddies, and they would gather for poker, but those were times when the family weren’t around.
My brother served in Vietnam, and did the same.
A lot of guys had experiences in wars, and tried to leave them behind – some relatively successfully, others sadly not.
Most were changed by the time they were in combat situations.