A Thought About Sacrifice On This Memorial Day...

[SteyrAUG]

So as anyone who has every paid a little attention to my posts on this forum, or TOS in the past knows I'm something of a military collector. My grandfather got me started, he was a top turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator and sometime when I was about 10 years old he showed me his 1911, his wings, some 15th AAC patches and his two Air medals as well as some "bring back" items.

I was hooked, I wanted to know everything there was to know about WWII, I wanted to collect anything associated with WWII. I began at the Army Navy store (which in the early 70s was mostly Korean and Vietnam era stuff) but if you looked hard you could find WWII and even some WWI items for sale. My Dad began to take me to gun shows, which in those days were more correctly collector shows, and by 8th grade I had a fairly impressive collection of uniforms, helmets, field gear, decorations and period firearms.

My grandparents were a great help, they knew a few people who also served but didn't have kids or anyone who would appreciate their keepsakes and the idea that their stuff could be part of a collection maintained by an enthusiastic kid probably wasn't a hard sell, especially if they met me and realized I was actually trying to study the war. I had that Time Life WWII series that probably some of you had and every time they released a new volume I would read it for an entire month.

They also knew some widows, who weren't as fortunate but couldn't bring themselves to throw a uniform and decorations away so it often found it's way into my collection. I was of course completely objective about it, even if I knew I now had the uniform of a guy who died in service (not the one he was actually wearing of course) to me the important thing was I had a pristine example of an Ike jacket and some well preserved decorations. Incidentally I accumulated so many Good Conduct medals I simply gave them away to other collectors and only kept the ones that my grandfather earned, the joke in the family being everyone was amazed he was decorated for "good conduct" not just once...but several times.

By the end of high school, I had dozens and dozens of uniforms, so I picked out the key ones that were very significant to the war (based on unit patches and such) or were just excellent examples of a given branch, rank and type and I used the rest for traders towards things my grandparents couldn't get such as British, German or Japanese militaria.

So what does any of this have to do about sacrifice?

Well one day well into adulthood, after I learned "there is stuff in pockets and sometimes it's big deal stuff" (like when I found some silver "reichsmarks" in the jacket pocket of a US uniform, obviously bring backs). So I was digging through the chest pockets of an Ike uniform when out dropped a simple wedding band, a woman's. Suddenly it wasn't just a really nice example of an Eisenhower. Rolling through my mental recollection I remember getting the uniform in a cardboard box from the basement of a nice old lady sometime around 1983 who was a friend of my grandmother.

I don't recall meeting her husband and I seem to recall he was killed in action, which probably made her feel like she'd somehow betray him if she discarded his personal effects. Also seems she put that wedding band in his coat pocket because she wasn't married any more.

So in this one instance, with this one couple, he lost his life fighting for his country, she lost her husband as a consequence and any imagined future they had together, and you know the planned one like everyone else...was suddenly gone. No children, no grandchildren, no helping with homework, no throwing the ball, no teaching them how to make snowmen in the winter. It was all just gone.

The widow seemed to live the rest of her life, she didn't become a shut in and die within 5 years. She was friends with my grandmother back then and they'd get together with the other old ladies for pie and coffee and things like that. But I don't think she ever remarried (from what I recall of her home when I visited, she had a few pictures of her deceased husband and nothing more on the walls). She did not get the family she imagined they'd probably start. At least she had friends.

Since then I have tried to be a little less objective about my collection and remember they were people. People who sometimes gave it all and I have the last evidence of their existence. Thankfully most of my stuff came from friends of my grandparents who were still alive and happy to give me their old WWII stuff because nobody else was interested.

But worth remembering, when somebody dies for their country, it isn't just that one person. There is usually a group that dies a little and their lives are changed forever. No parent is ever the same after that, no spouse is ever the same after that and god help any kid who has to go through such an experience.

I was lucky, I got to know my grandfather into my 30s and I didn't come into possession of his flag until my late 40s. But he spent almost an entire summer MIA in Yugoslavia when they went after Ploesti, it could have been very different.

[Johnny Rico]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It is incumbent upon us to always remember those that sacrificed their lives.

My dad was born in 1943 during the War. He and a cousin were named after family members who died during the Bataan Death March. They were in the Philippines Scouts. My grandparents and granduncle and aunt thought it important to honor their fallen cousins and make sure some part of them lived on as the Scouts had been too young to start families of their own.

My daughter is now old enough to understand. I shared this story with her recently as I want to make sure that she understands the importance of Memorial Day, and to impress upon her the duty of remembering.

[JediGuy]

Thank you.

My love for WWII history started at some indeterminate point, maybe due to the fact we watched old movies a lot. My most personal connection was my grandfather who served on the USS Quincy, which has a pretty incredible history of its own. He mentioned D-Day, but never went into detail. I don’t know how much he could see of the beaches, but I know he had memories that were left unspoken. In fact, he never talked about it at all beside a theological argument he and I had when I was like 14.

The impact of war became more noticeable to me when my mom talked about how her older brother was in Korea. My uncle didn’t talk about it. My mom hadn’t even been born yet.
Another uncle by marriage served during Vietnam. I didn’t even know until after college, though we were at their farmhouse every summer and probably closer than any other extended family. I think it came up because we were their for a Memorial Day, and I saw his face. And his dedication to serving in the local veterans org and color guard for a local parade hit me.

We do remember.

[TriggerFish]

[Lowdown3]

Thank you so much for posting this.

Robert D. Owen
MIA

[Artos]

This seems fitting...Loyce Deen Tribute.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/jpt6Bv...rols=0&showinf

[flenna]

Old graveyards fascinate me and I particularly look for veteran’s graves. It makes me think about their sacrifices and what it must have been like for them to leave their home knowing they may never return. Before the age of the internet and widespread television those boys going off to the skies over Europe or unheard of places like Peleliu and sacrifice their lives. There is a Confederate cemetery in a hidden corner of Chattanooga where 150 unknown soldiers of Braxton Bragg’s army are buried, lost to their families forever. I found a cemetery in Jellico, TN that is in the woods with veterans from the Spanish American War and the Civil War, long forgotten and whose sacrifices are lost to history.

[SeriousStudent]

I watched the sun come up at the local National Cemetery where my father's ashes are interred. I sat and had a cup of hot black Navy coffee the way he always loved it, in a handleless WW2 Navy mug. I told him how the kids and grandkids were doing, and how proud he would be of them.

His great granddaughter taped a picture of him with a flag to the wall of the columbarium where he is interred. Then we went and made breakfast for her mom and dad, both Army vets. We talked with them about the friends they remembered.

If you remember and honor them, a tiny piece of them never goes away.

Never forget them, and always honor them.

[rocsteady]

Bittersweet day, beautiful blue sky, bright sunshine and a nice breeze. So many Americans who willingly put life on the line to fight for the rest of us. Thinking of all our warriors today, those that paid the ultimate price and those still in the fight despite having spent time in places most of us wouldn't go. Hope you're all doing well on this Memorial Day Brothers.

[chuckman]

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind." John Donne, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Every death is connected to a spouse, or a parent, or a child, or a sibling, or a friend. A death in service to one's country is a paradox: at the same time it is needless and senseless, but it is also one of the highest forms of selflessness.