[Travis McGee]

I just watched and listened to Ennio Morricone's linked concert piece in Warsaw. Hard to describe my feelings during and after listening, but I highly recommend taking the 3.5 minute break from reality to lift your soul heavenword.

My father-in-law, an Iwo Jima combat veteran, passed away two weeks back and the funeral was this past Monday---in a foot of new blizzard snow. Between the last two Monday's, lost somewhere, was Christmas.

So thanks for the inspiring and uplifting orchestral piece, especially because my father-in-law was a musician and band leader all his life, plyaing trombone, banjo and piano. What he participated in and saw on Iwo Jima didn't darken him; he was a fun-seeker and a happy soul to the end.

The Japanese battle flag was on his office wall for years, signed by his buddies. The rifle and sword were souveniers, brought home in a seabag. I posed them and the photo for the picture.

[JoeProBono]

God rest his soul

[DuncanWaring]

Do you have any idea if your father-in-law ever read With the Old Breed?

[CodeToad]

My FIL was also an Iwo Jima veteran in that he sailed on the Saratoga during the campaign when it was blown to bits and had to sail home for repairs. We still have his Navy uniform and a Japanese flag captured sometime during that time. It is unknown how he came about it; he would only say, “The guy that had it didn’t need it anymore.” He never talked of the war, only that we as a nation had forgotten what a war was. He died on our second wedding anniversary in part due to his injuries to his lungs from that time. His wife, my MIL, died on our first wedding anniversary. He, too, was a happy soul. When he came home from the war he ice skated for the Ice Follies playing the drunk man routine, became a pilot and eventually retired from Boeing having help create both the Apollo capsule and the 747. He never complained about life in general and was a man I wished had lived long enough to get to know better. The greatest smile I could put on his face was when I told him I had dove his ship, the USS Saratoga CV-3. He didn’t ask many questions, just sitting there and remembering to himself. I promised we would take him there to see her for himself but he didn’t live long enough to get him there. Also, his son joined the Navy in the 1980’s and was assigned to the USS Saratoga CV-60. My FIL sailed a Tiger Cruise on CV-60 with his son and they made port in Jacksonville 40 years to the day the Saratoga CV-3 made port after Iwo Jima. My condolences for your FIL. They were both men of men.