77 YEARS AGO TODAY
77 years ago today, a war ended. The Good War. The war that saved the world.
I was going to write something today about the end of World War II and the U.S. role in saving the world by winning that war, but looking at the news just today, it’s clear we have become the country where nearly half our fellow citizens are good with believing the lies of a criminal who the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs correctly described a few years ago as “being a supporter of the ideas we fought against” in that war.
Today marks the 77th anniversary of the last war we fought with any good purpose.
My job is putting people from our wars into the history book, so my job is also remembering them. It’s been a privilege to know those guys, and it makes me incredibly sad to have re-read the introduction to my next book that comes out next spring, in which I state that “all those guys I talked to and write about are gone.”
There are two I think of in particular right now.
Dan Bowling, the son of a Socialist labor organizer in the Arizona copper mines, who went to war and became, in the words of one of his fellow squadron mates “The Squadron Leader - that’s different from the squadron commander.” He was proud of the fact that he was constantly in conflict with their commander because he changed the rules - “I led the missions the way I did because I was able to accomplish two things: I always hit the target and I never lost a guy.” Six years ago, I spoke at his funeral, held in the church he had personally built in the community he had also personally built. “I spent a year knocking down people’s homes and the rest of my life building people’s homes.” At the wake, three different people came up and told me three different stories of their having witnessed Dan literally give the coat off his back to a man who had none.
When Steve Pisanos got told that the son of a poor streetcar motorman in Athens would never fly an airplane in the Greek Air Force, he went home that night and told his father “I will go to America, where all things are possible.” He did come to America, and he achieved his dream of flight. Walter Cronkite called him “the most interesting individual I met in World War II.” As he used to say, “My life is The American Dream.”
Both of them are perfect examples of The American Dream. So were all the others I met and spoke with and became friends to.
The only difference between those Greatest Generation guys I've been privileged to know and write about and the guys from Korea and Vietnam I've written about is that they weren't in That War. And the guys who fought our recent wars that I haven’t written about. They were and are the same exact same people. They just didn’t get the opportunity to actually fight for the things they got told they were fighting for.
The one thing I learned from my own service is that everyone who goes pays a price, whether they were a two-tour Lurp or a guy who volunteered for permanent KP (I've known both), they were there and they Never Forget.
Within the lifetime of one person - me, born on the high tide of the American Republic in the year we liberated the world - we’ve gone from the American Dream to a credible possibility of the American Nightmare.
This country has failed at the one thing a government is supposed to do: be smart enough not to get in fights they shouldn't fight, and if they do get in a fight, be damn sure it's worth the price they're going to ask Those People to pay, because whether the cause is worthwhile or not, the price is going to be exacted and paid.
Those are my thoughts on the anniversary of the end of the Good War.
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TC, I knew a few of the men who fought in WWII. My husband, Mark, was one of them. After the war, he went to Company B's reunion every year, and when I entered his life, I went, too. During the war, Mark and another soldier created a library and drove it around, so all in their company had books to read. They were the Amos & Indy Library. What was one of the most outstanding things about Signal corps, company B? -- They absolutely loved each other for as long as they lived.
"My job is putting people from our wars into the history book, so my job is also remembering them."
You well live out your vocation as you put flesh and blood onto dates, timelines, battles. You made me think today of my Dad and Uncles and friends of theirs who served in "that War". But I also thought of my mother and grandmother who were nurses. My grandmother, Nan Cavanaugh, had travelled to France as a WWI nurse but both Mom and Nan served as nurses in defense plants here at home during WWII. I am sad too that they are all gone now. But my large family does keep them alive in memory and have recorded their stories for those who are only children now.
There is interest in the youngsters. One of the greatest fans of your books is my nephew Colin who is 26!! My youngest sister Mary was companion recently to a VietNam nurse, Fay Ferrington, on an Honor Flight to DC. So, we remember the men and women who served in all kinds of capacities during war.
I was born 77 years ago at Great Lakes Naval Base so my life, as yours, has unfolded out over these years to this point of time where we find things disturbingly upside down. But, as I look over my 40 nieces and nephews and almost 50 grand nieces and nephews as well as my own 3 young grandboys I can only hope we have passed along the values of our elders to them and that they will rise to the call to "fight" for what ultimately matters.
But I sincerely hope their generations find a way beyond armed conflicts and bloodshed. Suffering, though, will persist. What I see coming are cyber, probably biological, chemical and space"wars" . Cynically, there will always be those who grow their wealth in the business of destruction. But I also think we are on the cusp of a fuller grasp of who we are as earthlings within a cosmos beyond our current imagination. That could save us but no guarantees!!!
I can only hope this will begin changing consciousness.
Thank you, TC. You always make me think and reflect beyond my usual daily thoughts.