To: Mears
When I looked at the pic you posted tears came into my eyes. I remember
when I first saw it.
I'm a fair bit younger than you, but to some degree I got to see that stare
on a WWII Marine...in the 1970s.
My family would give a ride to church for a family when I was in my early teens.
The father didn't attend, but during a visit at their home I learned why.
The father had been the WWII version of a tunnel-rat during the island-hopping
in The Pacific.
He wasn't catatonic, but I suspect that over hundreds of hours at his house
I never heard him utter one word. And the gaze was there about 95% of the time.
It still amazes me a bit that I've lived long enough to see another American generation
have an epochal event like 9-11 and The War On Terror.
22 posted on
11/14/2004 12:30:59 PM PST by
VOA
To: VOA
Some of them came back so damanged---thanks for your post!
The thing that I find astonishing is that they were SO YOUNG! My friend's brother graduated from high school(no graduation ceremony or prom) and 6 months later he was a tail gunner in the Pacific-----unbelievable.He was lucky---he made it home.
24 posted on
11/14/2004 12:38:19 PM PST by
Mears
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