Jim Goldsworthy, Columnist
Cumberland Times-News
January 26, 2008 08:38 pm
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Each time I watch vintage wartime film footage of American troops, I wonder if there are folks out there — the survivors — who are also watching and see themselves as they once were, in a time they might like to forget but cannot.
It must happen. What are their thoughts? What does it do to them, emotionally?
An old friend called to tell me he knew one of the old soldiers who was featured in a Weather Channel episode about the World War II Battle of the Bulge.
“He (George Fisher, who lives in Florida) and I were wounded on the same day — Jan. 3, 1945,” Gert said. He didn’t meet Fisher until a 26th Infantry Division reunion after the war and told me that he’s seen a lot of the places he’d been to as a young soldier, but has never seen himself, in old newsreels.
More than 19,000 American soldiers died during the Battle of the Bulge, including Oscar Jordan of Hyndman, Pa., for whom Hyndman VFW Post 7375 is named. I didn’t know about him until Gert told me.
Jordan and more than 80 other American soldiers were murdered by German Waffen-SS troops who captured them in Belgium during the “Malmedy Massacre.” Most of the bodies were recovered in a small area, indicating they had been herded together before they were killed. Others were shot at close range or had their skulls crushed by rifle butts. About 40 escaped, including the actor Charles Durning.
My uncle, who was a medic during that war, said he and his buddies went into a bunker and found several German soldiers who had been shot by their own men. All had been wounded, and the others killed them so as not to be burdened with them during the retreat.
“That’s the day I realized the extent of the evil we were fighting against,” Abe said.
There’s never a shortage of evil. But what does one do with it? It’s unwise to simply say, “There is evil,” and jump into the middle of its back with both feet. That’s exactly the sort of thing that started the First World War.
Americans are peace-loving people, which can put us at a disadvantage in dealing with some of the vermin that infest this planet. We say, “Give peace a chance,” and while it’s a wonderful sentiment, it doesn’t always work.
Neville Chamberlain gave “Peace in Our Time” a chance. Not long after that, Hitler’s army overran Europe to start the horror that George Fisher, Oscar Jordan, Gert Speelman, Abe Goldsworthy and millions of others took years to put down.
“Peace with Honor” worked just long enough to give North Vietnam the opportunity to raise an army big enough to overwhelm the South Vietnam that was forsaken by America’s government after more than 58,000 American troops had died trying to keep it free.
I’ve gone twice to the Korean War Memorial in Washington, and a lot of the people I saw there appeared to be of Asian descent. I wonder how many were South Koreans who were thankful for the freedom they have because America’s government didn’t abandon their country the same way it did to South Vietnam. More than 54,000 Americans died to save South Korea.
I also watched an aging Filipino carrying a large American flag as he went around the World War II Memorial thanking aging American veterans for his freedom. Not all of the world dislikes us, as some would have us believe.
Some friends of mine have a son who’s been away for a while, and when they told me he was coming home for a few days, I said I wanted to see him and arranged to meet them.
The son and his buddies are in the Military Police at their Army post, which he said means the other soldiers hate them. That doesn’t bother him because he’s doing something he’s dreamed about for a long time.
He said the food they get is actually pretty good. When I asked his dad what he thought about that, he seemed to ignore me.
“He can’t hear you,” the son said, and I told him a lot of them are that way. Like other vets, his dad (Army) ate too much lousy food and heard too many loud noises.
“A buddy of mine can’t hear either,” the son went on. “He was in Iraq when an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) went off near him.”
The subject of Iraq having been introduced, I asked him what he thought about it. Iraq is another question I have no good answer for, and I’m not sure what to think of other people’s answers.
“It’s a job that has to be done,” he said, and we let it go at that ... neither of us mentioning that he is scheduled to go there in a few months. His mom says she’ll deal with that when the time comes.
I hugged my young friend, thanked him for what he’s doing and told him I was proud of him.
“I’m proud, too,” he said. The last time I’d seen him, his life could have gone in any number of directions, some better than others. He seems to have picked a good one.
In a former life many years ago, his mom was my girlfriend. I gave her a Blue Star pin to wear as a sign of her pride in having a son in the service. The man she married said he’s going to get a Blue Star flag to put in their window.
In the life I’m living today, these are two of my most beloved friends. Their son’s picture is pinned to the wall of my cubicle at the newspaper.
We have to find a better way to resolve our problems than by killing each other, but that can’t happen unless both sides are willing to look for it. There’s no negotiating with people like al-Qaida or the Taliban — who murder even those who are sympathetic to them — or some of the criminal gangs like MS 13 that are nothing more than terrorists.
When you see our troops or police on active duty, please thank them for what they do. When you see our veterans, thank them for what they did and tell them Welcome Home.
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