Posted on 01/10/2006 11:13:08 AM PST by tryon1ja
My Dad will be 84 on the 15th. of this month. He is one of the WWII vets still with us. The following email got me to thinking about him and how unique he has become and ever more so every day. He never talked much about the war and still doesn't until this day. About all he ever told me is that he drove a gasoline truck and that he spent a lot of time in North Africa and Italy. I know he won a bronze star because I saw it once. But other than that, he won't same much except it waa a thing they had to do. I offer the following email and website/song as a tribute to my father and to all his fellow Americans who fought to make us free.
This came from a fellow officer from the 84th Engineer Battalion, today. He highly recommended it. I think I may have sent it out before, even so it is good stuff, worthy of a second review. When you get the chance, thank our World War II Veterans. Their ranks are thining out. The song here says it all. Enjoy. Mel
The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood. Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach , FL, eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event.
He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly. At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you." Then the old soldier began to cry.
"That really got to me," Bierstock says.
Cut to today.
Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band - have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die.
"If we had lost that particular war,! our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "Every ethnic minority would be dead. And the soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them."
The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web at
http://www.beforeyougo.us/
the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.
"It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. "I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them."
Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but ! because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.
Someone shared that beautiful tribute with me a couple of weeks ago.
Very moving.
My Dad served in the Pacific during WWII. He is 88 years old.
Ping a ling a ling....
8^)
ping for tomorrow
my grandfather will be 82. he was on the ukranian front. He also never speak much about the war...
I think when they returned home and were debriefed before discharge that they were all told not to discuss the war. Maybe, it was best for them to help forget some of the things they had to endure.
Well, i don't think so, you know, knowleges about the war used to cultivate in us since the very first grades, vets used to be ivited for a talk with children to tell them some stories ab. their war days & etc. I think the point is that for my grandpa is difficult to remember those years. Once he heard a song (an old song by Mark Bernes about the ww2) & started crying, at that moment i realized how horrible was everymoment of his war, how hard for him to remember it. Unfortunatly i was born after the death of another grandfather of mine (like a lot of people in Russia of my age, both of grandfathers were vets)about his wardays i could recognize only from the notes of his flying magazine & as my parents said he also didn't speak much about the event...
P.S. Say Hello to your father from granddaughter of two soviet vets, wish him a lot of health, gladness & happiness
& don't forget to say "spasibo"(thank you) from me!
I can still remember my dad and uncle coming home from the war. I was not even 3 yet but I remember them in their uniforms. One Army and one Navy. Funny, how the human mind can remember things that happened 60 years ago very vivid but many more recent events just slip our minds. Thank you for the nice things to say to my dad.
Here is another site you might like. Since I am a vet and am getting old both sites have meaning for me and were both sent to me by my wife.
http://www.inspiringthots.net/movie/saucer.php
My cup has run over for a very long time.
thank u very much for the link & by the way i've found in runet a site translated into english. The site is ab. eastern front & the period that we are in Russia use to say "The greate partiotic war" or "Greate father's war 1941-1945". There you can see a multi-media map of the actions & names of soviet vets that are still alive.
http://english.pobediteli.ru/
I have only some pics of my grandfathers in there uniforms. My Grandpa Alexander's brother(my dad's uncle)died near leningrad (st. petersburg) as i said 26 mln. soviet citizens died. almost each family of former USSR lost somebody & almost every family have it own WW2.
Wow! What a fantastic site. Thank you!
My Dad passed away a little over three years ago; he would be almost 85 now. He was in the 88th/351st Army Infantry at N.Africa, Sicily, Italy, in Germany, won Presidential Unit Citation at the battle of Laiatico, Italy, a Bronze Star & Purple Heart. He once said that there were times when they (soldiers) thought they were going to lose that war - but knew they COULD NOT AFFORD TO LOSE THAT WAR even if they had to charge hell with a bucket of water. Yes. They do deserve the highest degree of respect and appreciation. Time is running out to thank them.
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