Mikey:
Of all the gifts my dad gave me, his copy of the gospel of St. John is the most precious to me. He carried it in his shirt pocket throughout his service in WWII. Most of the men in his unit were either killed or taken prisoner in the Battle of the Bulge. He was transferred to a hospital in Paris to receive treatment for his frozen feet shortly before the battle. Looking at that old worn book reminds me of the sacrifice of all those young men, the ones who did not return home, and how grateful I was for my dad to have problems with his feet the rest of his life. He didn’t dance or hike with me, but he was with us till I was 38.
The imprint on the cover of that book is now faded and I am certain it did not include the seal of the US Army. This letter you shared with us reminds me how their service and sacrifice may be fading from our military commanders’ memory. What did all this men die for? They preserved freedom, not only for Europe and the Pacific, but for all of us. It is, once again shocking to me that the people who should know the law who took the oath to protect and defend the Constitution are the very ones who are bringing shame upon the US military. The shame will be on all of us if we just ignore it.
God Bless you! Keep holding your arms up!
(name withheld)
