Skip to main content

Flashback Friday

This past memorial Day weekend I binged on a few episodes of Band of Brothers.  If you have never seen this Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg 10 episode HBO series, do yourself a favor and see it.  It details Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles during World War II.  The actors are pitch perfect and the writing is excellent.  

It reminded me of a few pictures I'd seen in the family album of a few of Herb's brothers in arms while he served on the gunboat 61 in the Pacific.   








Herb didn't speak much or often about his time in the Pacific or his band of brothers.  We got the story of him on watch the time a Japanese sub fired a torpedo, and the long nights on patrol around the Filipino islands and how the moon was best friend/worst enemy.  We got the story about the cook and laundry guy who stole stuff from them and they put him on shore someplace.  We got the story of the captain who was sent home leaving Herb the 61's commanding officer.  Imagine that, a kid at Monmouth College who joins the Navy to help fight the war, is sent to Columbia University in NY to learn how to run a ship as a 90-day wonder.   And then, ends up being its captain.  Any other stories are silenced now.  A sword we boys swore had blood on it, muster papers after it was all over, and back home to finish his last year in college and then move to Seaton, Illinois to teach.  Go watch Band of Brothers, and remember what these guys did for us.  We take too much for granted in America, maybe that's changing.  Maybe we all need to wake up and think about what is dear to us as individuals, as a people and as a nation.  

I didn't mean to get preachy.  Thanks Herb, and your Band of Brothers - indeed all the Brothers all over in uniform who have sacrificed in ways large and small.     




This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Shakespeare's Henry V

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Florida Air Museum - Part 3

Welcome back to a pretty neat tour of the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland Florida.  There's a lot to see and a couple of the old Geezer Gold Wing guys are already sitting down instead of walking around looking at the exhibits. That's John who is wore out and making a call to his wife.  In all honesty, John was pretty well bushed before the ride.  He told me his daughter's family was down from one of the Carolina's with the grand kids and he must have played with them too much.   He's about to take off on his own and head for home, but he's going to miss a couple of neat things out on Hangar A.   But, before we walk over there, we have lots yet to see here.  If you saw The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Howard Hughes, you'll remember that he went up in a plane during the filming of one of his movies to prove a point about flying.  He crashed trying to execute a roll and this is a picture of the plane he crashed.  No...
1 comment
Read more

Summer Swim

It's Monday and the start of another work week.  Except for me.  I have the week off because the parents of my daycare charges are taking the week off, too. This is one of those wordless posts I love on Mondays so I can put my laziness in full view of loyal readers.  These pics need no words.  Why muddy the waters?   They were taken at the pool at Sinkhole Estates aka Death Valley.  The nice thing about this pool is it is heated in winter.  If one must find positives in one's situation, I suppose that is one.  But, please, no more.   
Post a Comment
Read more