70 years ago this morning the Germans launched a surprise offensive that became "The Battle of the Bulge." I am certain you all remember the story of General Anthony McCauliffe of the 101st Airborne and his reply to the German demand to surrender. One word, "NUTS."
Those of you that know me also know that family history is important to me. Both of my Grandfathers were too old to be drafted and had families when the war came around. They served the war effort in their own ways. My Great Uncle, who I have written about before fought in the Battle of the Bulge and eventually crossed the Rhine with Patton. He rarely talked about the details of his service unless it was to tell a humorous tale. I remember asking him when I was a foolish youngster if he had killed anyone in the war. His response? A very quiet, eyes averted white lie, "I don't know." He was active in the American Legion and continued to serve the community in many ways right up until his death.
The men and women of his generation and their families sacrificed much for the rest of us and it always amazes me how humble they were, how quiet they were about it. In today's "hooray for me and fuck the rest of you" world, it would be nice if that attitude and behavior could somehow be rekindled. While there are many who serve and sacrifice without expectation of reward, it seems from our leaders to our children the overriding goal is furthering yourself and your image.
I guess this isn't meant to be a rant about today's generation. It is meant to honor those who have passed and those few who still remain from The Greatest Generation. Their numbers are dwindling. They are quietly moving on to whatever challenge is next. Challenges they will meet by putting their head down, moving forward diligently and quietly and getting the job done without complaint or comment.
My Uncle passed away over 5 years ago now. Several other local veterans have passed since that time. Most recently a man who lied about his age to join the Navy at 16. He served in the Pacific on a submarine. In 2013 he flew to Washington DC on one of the Honor Flights to see the memorial that was erected in honor of his and other's service. He told me it was one of the highlights of his life.
If there was ever a time or a cause to donate to, I hope you will consider donating to Honor Flights. My Uncle never saw the memorials. Honestly, I am sure he never thought about it, which is typical. I wish he had the opportunity.
http://www.honorflight.org/
The title page of their site has an outstanding quote from Will Rogers:
"We can't all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go by."
It was indeed a glorious generation full of heroism and bravery. The stories and the leaders abound, and for every Patton there are hundreds of others whose blood seeped into the battlegrounds. No question, a tyrant was stopped with the direct help of U.S. might and the lives of 10s of thousands from the other side of the Atlantic.
ReplyDeleteAlas, while it is right to remember and honor a previous generation which sacrificed for the good of fellow humanity it is wrong, I believe, to accurately compare generations with wistful memories. It is a far-different world with battles and blood spilled in ways my great-grandfathers (who fought on opposite sides of the WW1 trench) would never have imagined. In fact, if war did break out on a global landscape it would last days if not hours and clearly there would be no winners.
To label the current generation "Hooray for me and fuck the rest of the world" is insular and naive thinking.... wistful for a time in the past seemingly and imagined better. And irrevalent.
When I was a five-year old my grandfather would recall the days of his youth when he spent summers on an uncle's dairy farm in upstate NY. I would sit staring, or so my mom recalls, as he remembered his adventures with an audience of one including how the dairy products were sold locally and the taste was nothing like "supermarket cream cheese, butter and milk.... it was pure, it was from the cow to the table......"
"Dad," my mom would say (Gramps would repeat stories), "she's five years old."
Of course in retrospect he's correct about farm-to-table and the demise of the local farm. But then again the shelves of the supermarket, state lines away from the farms, wouldn't have packaged cream cheese, butter and milk in the dairy department.
Different times.
So, will you donate to the cause?
Delete"Storm of steel" a real no nonsense account of what went on in the german trenches during the war to end all wars. Unimaginable horror. The things some of our grand and great grand parents went through to get us here is incredible, to say the least. Yes, times are indeed different. A friend of mine's grandmother would always repeat the phrase "not my world" and shake her head. People would kind of laugh and humor her about it, but looking back i can see her point of view much clearer as i get older and this world becomes less and less "my world" as well. Maybe it is a good thing we die along with the past which raised us as much as our parents ever did, because "change" and "progress" are really just sugar coated words for the destruction of what was once important to those who came before. And as more and more things you identify as important are destroyed, at some point you too lose your value to those that have taken hold of the future.
DeleteI agree with all of this. I think it points to how the right environment can bring out the best in people. Certain times in certain places throughout all of human history seem to bring out the best.. or the worse in the people that live in it's midst. The history books are full of examples. I don't blame KT for having sour grapes for being born into a sort of amoral soulless vacuum of a lost generation, and admire her for what she has managed to scavenge from the wastes of her time and place. She deserves mad props for being able to even discuss such things with her elder statesman friends on the interwebs. As rome burns and the monuments to the past topple one by one in the spreading inferno, we can at least provide her a oral account of their significance to pass on to the domesticated cyborg worker drone offspring who are to come in her wake.
ReplyDeletewell, some of us still shit outdoors for the thrill of it.
ReplyDeleteThe three of us are, indeed, not on the same page. You see a former generation and, in my opinion, wrongly compare it to the present. As if the heroes of yesterday were more plentiful and of a greater quality. In the middle of the previous century you see heroism and sacrifice and, incredibly, believe that is not possible today. It is wistful thinking and seeing with myopic vision, blaming for what you perceive lacking, missing or empty on anything but yourself and always harken back to a former time. I thought this was only the blurred sight of the very old. What a bunch of crap. On a related subject, my husband and I consider ourselves to be charitable folks, giving up our time, energy and sometimes writing a check to a cause in which we feel strongly. To us, it is children and the impoverished of the world. For me as well it is homeless animals.
ReplyDeleteWell then.. so be it. Certainly i was not intending to cast aspersions on you and yours personally, nor do i think there are not exceptions to every rule. Hind sight is not only twenty twenty, but also terribly judgmental and prejudice indeed. I am proud of you for standing up for your generation though, god only knows that i would never dream of stranding up for mine. May you all live long, fruitful, and courageous lives, proving all your most dour and cynical critics dead wrong, because if you don't, the future is far too sad to even begin to imagine.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of renaming the blog. Perhaps, "It's OK if you don't agree with me. I can't force you to be right."
DeleteDamned Couch Manufacturers!
I grew up in the Belgian Ardennes, and after spending 6 years in the UK, I came back to live here. I live just 15 minutes from Bastogne.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents always told us about the war, and about their gratitude towards people like your uncle.