[Retain Mike]

Today is a good time for Ernie Pyle to speak to us about one man representative of tens of thousands whose remains reside in cemeteries throughout the world.

Captain Henry Waskow was killed December 14, 1943 in Italy when a shell fragment tore open his chest. Rick Atkinson in The Day of Battle describes him as someone who was never young, probably because he was one of eight children in a poor family of German Baptists. He was class president at Belton High School and graduated with the highest grade-point average in twenty years. At Trinity College he joined the Texas National Guard and earned an extra dollar for each drill session.

Rick Atkinson says this was perhaps the finest expository passage of WW II. Ernie Pyle by then believed the enormity of what he had experienced could not be captured by words and said, “I’ve lost the touch. This stuff stinks”.

Henry Waskow in a letter to his sister wrote, “I would have liked to have lived. But, since God has willed otherwise, do not grieve too much, dear ones, for life in the other world must be beautiful, and I have lived a life with that in mind all along. I was not afraid to die; you can be assured of that. I have done my share to make this world a better place in which to live. Maybe when the lights go on again all over the world, free people can be happy and gay again….If I failed as a leader, and I pray God I didn’t, it was not because I did not try”.

[rlmorel]

That last paragraph in the letter to his wife. Just.wow.

[Chewbarkah]

I found this profoundly moving, both in regard to Captain Wiskow and Ernie Pyle whose similar fate awaited him. Thank you, Retain Mike, for posting.

[higgmeister]

Captain Waskow, Thank You for your full measure of devotion, Sir.   Thank You, Ernie Pyle, for all that you did and for your full measure of devotion too, Sir.

Retain Mike, you're also doing great in your twenty-first year here.

[BatGuano]

My Memorial Days are a time to remember those who I have known who have died in Combat and those who died in training accidents.
Even training has dangers when one is flying in weather at extremely low altitudes and high speeds. The training can be very hazardous even with cautions.
RIP my friends, you are certainly remembered, by name.
Thank you for remembering Capt. Waskow.
“Nunc est Bibendum!”
(”Now is the time to drink!”)

[freds6girlies]

bookmark

[rfreedom4u]

CPT Waskow was from my home town of Belton, Texas. We have a high school named after him.

[laplata]

Thank you for posting this very moving account.

Ther was a scene of this in “GI Joe”. Robert Mitchum was the captain.