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President Barack Obama told the world on Friday in Hiroshima that the American decision to drop nuclear bombs on Japan in 1945 arose from humanity’s worst instincts, including “nationalist fervor or religious zeal.” The war that ended in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he said, “grew out of the same base instinct for domination or conquest that had caused conflicts among the simplest tribes, an old pattern amplified by new capabilities and without new constraints.” The speech — delivered on the eve of Memorial Day weekend — was billed by the White House as anything but an apology, but Obama’s words betrayed...

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Marine Corps says it has begun investigating whether it mistakenly identified one of the men shown raising the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima in one of the iconic images of World War II after two amateur history buffs began raising questions about the picture. The Marines announced its inquiry more than a year after Eric Krelle, of Omaha, Nebraska, and Stephen Foley, of Wexford, Ireland, began raising doubts about the identity of one man. In November 2014, the Omaha World-Herald published an extensive story about their claims and Saturday was the first to report the...

We lost another WW11 vet today.My wife's Dad, August Niemann went to be with the Lord today . He was 94 years old. He flew as a ball-turret gunner out of England at the end of WW11. To his dying day he would never talk about the war. When he did, he would only tell us about the food drops at the end of the war. He said the people of Europe were so hungry, they would run out to get food as it was still falling. Sometimes there were so many people on the field, they would have to...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Outspoken Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders called on the government Wednesday to apologize for the country’s “passive” response to the mass deportations of Jews by Nazi occupiers during World War II. The move is likely to re-ignite debate about Dutch attitudes to the wartime persecution of the country’s Jewish population. Of the 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands before the war, more than 100,000 were deported and murdered. About 30,000 Jews live here now, out of a total population of nearly 17 million. Wilders is best known for his strident criticism of Islam and also is...

html May 30, 2011 They Who ServeBy Lee DeCovnick My father lives in a wonderful retirement community where the lawns are all neatly mowed, the roses pruned, and the trees trimmed every fall. When I come by each week Dad usually has three or four requests from his friends lined up for me: move a couch, carry some heavy boxes upstairs, assemble some furniture, or set up a new TV or computer. Em and Sparks, a happy but odd couple live in the building across the courtyard in a large condo. I have moved their TV, and re-arranged their living...

A reunited trio of World War II veterans recall the night they were seperated, seemingly foreverIt was a miserable January night outside the French village of Rimling, made bleaker by advancing German troops from the 559th and 257th Volks-Grenadier Divisions. Don Hildenbrand's company was pinned down on a ridge about two miles from town, just a grenade toss from the border. Their communications line had been cut and German units had pushed past them on both flanks. "Everybody knew something bad was going to happen, we were badly outnumbered," Hildenbrand recalled Saturday. Sgt. Pete Petracco asked for a volunteer to...

World War II message washes up A bottle containing a message from a refugee fleeing the Nazis during World War II has been found on a remote Swedish beach. The note, dated to 1943 and scrawled on now yellowed paper, was written in English and asked if the war was over. It was signed by a woman called Maja Westerman from the then Nazi-occupied Baltic state of Estonia, who had fled to Gotska Sandoen, a Swedish island 150 kilometres (92 miles) from where the bottle was found. Thorsten Schwarz, the Swiss tourist who found the bottle, said he hoped to...

  I have received several requests/suggestions that I change a reference made in the poem whichappears on my "It Is The Veteran" web page. The line reads: Where five good men raised this Flag so high,That the WHOLE DAMN WORLD COULD SEE IT FLY. The requests/suggestions are to correct this line to read: Where SIX good men raised this Flag so high,That the WHOLE DAMN WORLD COULD SEE IT FLY.   First let me say that I am not the author of the verses that appears on this page.I have done an extensive search and, as near as I can tell, the actual author...