Yesterday's Hero

It's Memorial Day weekend in the US - the official start of summer! A time for cook-outs, picnics, parades, family & friends. But most of all it's a time to remember our fallen heroes, past and present. For me, it's a time to remember my dad, a WWII hero, who made it back home. He was 37 years old, married with two children, when he received his draft notice and went to serve in the Navy aboard an LSM in the Pacific. His ship was involved in the invasion of Iwo Jima and then sunk by a kamikaze plane in Okinawa. Fortunately he was rescued and eventually returned home to his family, but he left a part of him in that war. After my mom died we found all of the letters he had written to her during his time in the Navy and I was able to piece together what he had gone through. In one of his letters he wrote"When this mess is over, I can't see how anyone in the world would ever want any part of another war again." Unfortunately, as we all know, that was not to be the case. So, let's remember our war heroes today - both those who have lost their lives, and those who made it back home with their battle scars, both mental and physical. My dad died of lung cancer in 1973, but his words ring as true to me today as they did in 1945 - "I can't see how anyone in the world would ever want any part of another war again."