My dad was a WW2 Navy Corpman, and fought at Peleleu, and Okanawa.
3 Purple Hearts trying to save members of the 5th Marine division.
The finest man I have ever known.
Thanks for the tears : )
My Dad’s oldest brother was greivously wounded on Okinawa. Survived 7 amphib landings and almost bought it there.
Dad’s baby brother MET up with Oldest brother there, two different divisions, before he was wounded. Dad was in Europe fighting the National Socialists, the brothers were in the Pacific stopping the march of Dai Nippon and shoving their “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere” up their Nipponese arses.
Grandma had three stars in the window; two of them were almost Gold stars.
Every generation gets it’s chance to protect and preserve what the last generation fought and bled for.
My father taught me something before he died - what he called the three virtues of an American Man: “Duty, Honor, Courage”. His entire generation understood those virtues, and lived them.
We need to face the fact that this is probably OUR turn, and we need to be as firm and dedicated to purpose, and grimly determined to hang on to what our Dads fought to preserve.
“Do NOT go Gently...”
Our Fathers didn’t. They heard the bugle, they answered it, because they understood “Duty, Honor, Courage”. They didn’t want to, they’d have much rather stayed at home, chasing skirt, chasing a couple cold beers with the boys at the “Taproom”, and just living their lives, but they went anyway.
They were everything I aspired to be, all my life. And they are THE picture of what it means to be Americans.
You know the rest, brother.
God bless.
“...3 Purple Hearts trying to save members of the 5th Marine division...”
And you know what? He did it because they were his buddies, because it was the right thing to do, and he was a brave man. He just WENT out there for them, and brought them back.
The finest men, indeed. Our fathers were giants walking amongst us, and we didn’t even know it. THEY didn’t even know it, either, which is the reason they were amazing folks.
We are diminished greatly as a People and as a Nation as they leave us.
And as this National Tragedy we have currently running the country unfolds, I can’t help but wonder what they think about it, and about US for letting it happen.