Flight Officer David Campbell: He's dead. I'm crippled. You're lost. Do you suppose it's always like that? I mean war.
DDay was a feat unmatched in history. Anyone who played a part in it qualifies as a hero if you ask me.
I think Kenneth Cordry is a relative of someone I know near Fort Leonard Wood; I may have met Kenneth Cordry recently at a funeral for a younger brother. If so, I regret not thanking him for his service in World War II. But regardless of whether I have met him or not, all of these veterans need to be thanked, and thanked often.
I see this often on bumper stickers around here since teaching is a common occupation of military wives: “If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a soldier.”
Unlike many of our wars, World War II really was a war for survival of freedom and Western civilization. If it were not for our World War II veterans, we would today be speaking either German or Japanese. Not that other veterans aren’t important; they most emphatically are, and Vietnam vets especially need to be thanked since too many of them got anything but thanks when they returned. I know one Vietnam veteran who never received a single word of thanks until a few years ago, and literally broke down crying when hearing those words for the first time.
But with World War II veterans, many of whom are close to death, let’s never forget what they did for us. Our world would be a very different place if it were not for what they did.