[Written and published in 2008. It seems fitting today.]
Last evening he reacted with amazement. “You gotta be kidding me!” I had just mentioned I was writing about him. I thought for a moment he might object. As it is, I hope he forgives me for the details I may have gotten wrong.
It was one of several encounters I had happened upon with this impressive, self-deprecating man. I often stop by the local library, and that’s where we kept bumping into each other. The first time, he was trying to recover a lost file on a library computer. I tried to help him, unsuccessfully as it turned out. We talked about the coming election. He was for McCain, I for Obama.
Then he told me a little of himself. He is a war hero from the Vietnam era. That’s my description not his. He seems hesitant as he talks about it, and he talks about it sparingly. “I just went a little crazy,” he says. His “craziness” saved others who were in mortal danger, pinned down and taking enemy fire. He was later awarded the Bronze Star for bravery. That medal is awarded for any of several acts, but when earned for bravery in combat, it is the fourth highest possible military citation given by the U.S. Armed Forces.
For years, modesty and uncertainty of how it might be regarded prompted him to keep the award stored out of view. He would not expose this symbol to derision. It was his father who changed his mind. His dad had served in the Air Force in World War Two, flying over the Empire of Japan with General Curtis Lemay. He confessed to his son that he felt just a little envious. The younger veteran was incredulous and so his father explained, it was that hidden Bronze Star. The son objected. The old man was a hero many times over. He pointed to the many ribbons, medals, and awards the elder hero had on his own wall. “But I never earned a Bronze Star,” the father stated simply.
They are everywhere, these heroes who have our lasting thanks and admiration, earned in far off lands. They are lucky to have made it back, and we are blessed in having them back. A choir director, members at church, workmates, and casual acquaintances are among them. There are many more unknowingly met in bank lines and pharmacies, the routine encounters that are part of everyday life. I have a letter from a onetime coworker, recently assigned to Afghanistan. He has my prayers until the moment he returns.
My friend in the library had a special relationship with his dad. They each shared an admiration of the other, quiet and well deserved. The last act of that regard came as the son gazed into an open casket. He placed next to his father the Bronze Star that had been awarded for an act of desperation decades ago in a land far away.
The father had chosen his son well.
Excellent posting, my friend! Thank you for sharing this. I consider it a reminder that we all owe a debt of gratitude to those that sign up to go in harm’s way to protect us and our nation, including your own Marine, Burr. We sometimes don’t realize even the quiet heroism of those that have served with whom we come into contact every day.
Another Veterans Day has come and gone, each time seeing fewer remaining veterans from World War II.
We are appropriately accustomed to thanking them for their service, but we rarely discuss why they fought.
My father-in-law served in Patton’s Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge and liberation of Buchenwald. He came home with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He saw the end results of unchecked fascism.
Those inmates were all “enemies of the state”, enemies of the “Deutshce Volk”, (German people). They were communists, socialists, educators, non-heterosexual people, and members of the wrong religion/heritage.
Even if someone wasn’t in any of those groups, he could still be labeled an enemy of the people who “hates the Fatherland”, and sent to the camps. The “law” allowed this.
Every atrocity the Nazis committed was “legal”. The Enabling Act of March 23, 1933 allowed the Reich government to issue laws without the consent of Germany’s parliament, laying the foundation for the complete Nazification of German society.
Echoes of Hitler’s racist fascism are now ringing across America. As with the Third Reich, the resentments and anger of white nationalist bigots have fueled the rise of the radical Right and Trumpism.
They are now accusing the opposition of “hating America”. What happens when fellow citizens are demonized as enemies by those in power? Fascists love to punish those they hate.
We’re on the precipice of a one-party dictatorship if voter rights are not protected and gerrymandering allowed to continue.
This is the party that won’r condemn a congressman’s veiled threat of murder against another member and the President. Gosar is a fascist and the party cannot denounce his stochastic terrorism.
They have been loyal to a leader who has openly promoted stochastic terrorism. In 2016 he threatened his opponent with jail .
This is the party that still supports a leader who calls democrats communists. He calls the press the enemy of the people. He makes scapegoats of immigrants and minorities. He rose to power by fueling hate and racist birtherism.
The leader is a criminal sociopath who incited a violent coup and praised the mob of thugs for their efforts. He literally praised terrorists, but his loyal supporters see people like me as anti-American.
His party is banning books and suppressing education of slavery and racism.
See any parallels here?
This is fascism. As one falsely accused of hating America by a certain radical Right Trumpist, I can attest to this fact.