Posted on 04/20/2020 4:09:08 AM PDT by gattaca
Interesting commentary.
I found that to be an interesting assertion. Basically a do nothing snooty modern judging that kid based on modern sensibilities. Much like modern academics holding civil war soldiers to modern standards. These arr men of their time. Not men of our time. Provincial? The kid probably was. No TV, no internet, no radio. He had some newspapers and some books. That’s it. Different world entirety. A much much bigger and inaccessible world. So I wonder who is acting the provincial rube? I would say not the kid.
In my youth, I knew a friend of my father who volunteered in the Canadian medical corps before we got into WWI. In summer he operated a floating refreshment stand on the Potomac River. I saw huge scars on his legs. My mother told me he was released from service because he went kind of nuts stacking up corpses during the Spanish flu epidemic.
Both my parents were born in 1918. Bless their souls.
This country now is not what they sacrificed to protect.
Things in the old country endure. Not so much here. Most things are temporary and not built or intended to last.
Not a ramble. A fascinating post. Thank you.
My Grandfather fought in WWI. He died before I was wise enough to ask him about it all.
Too old soon, too late smart.
It is a weakness of man in his life.
Untouched? The dust must be several inches deep by now!
The carnage among junior infantry officers was beyond appalling all war long - they were the first to go. I don’t think a graduate of St. Cyr would be all that provincial, actually, but he would certainly have been a man of his time, one central belief of whose was that the soil of his country was sacred and worth dying to protect from a foreigner (particularly that foreigner). Contrast that with the No Borders cultists of today and you’ll see what I mean.
Thankfully, my WWI vet grandfather survived his injuries although they troubled him the rest of his life. Of course he didn’t say much about it to us kids.
Hubs’ relatives in Canada live near “Monument Corner” ... four boys from the farms at the four corners of a rural intersection all went to fight in France. None of them returned. The families put up a cenotaph in their honor. It’s grown to a little memorial park for all veterans of all wars from the Island. When we visited, DS2 was 18, same age as those guys. I can’t imagine waving to my boy as he got on the ferry and left for the mainland, then he never returned.
Fascinating family history. Thanks for sharing.
What an ass. Typical of liberals who think they can glance at a person's circumstances and make all kinds of conclusions about them, their thoughts, and feelings.
My grandfather suffered the effects of mustard gas attack. Just in the last month, after beginning to go through my parents files that I had boxed four years ago, I found my grandfathers discharge in a trifold leather pouch. During the war he was a horse shoer. Found many documents that are very interesting. I need to figure out a way to preserve them.
This may be Hubert Rochereau's actual picture:
No, they died of Covid-19 you silly goose
fltr
My maternal grandfather served in the US Army in WWI. Really don’t know much about his service other than the 1 picture we have of him with 2 of his friends sitting near a tree in France. He died back home in a logging accident when my mother was only 7 so she didn’t have any stories to share. I’m sure I have family that may have looked into his service but it’s not something I dwell on.
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