Thursday - January 15, 2004
 The Last Veteran
The last
veteran that is known to have been wounded in the Great War has died
at the age of 108. A friend of mine in Austin after being told about this,
spoke with sadness that the veterans of the Great War, the Korean War, and Viet
Nam are slowly disappearing. The following paragraphs are my response to
him.Jack, of course, you
forgot WWII, veterans of which are getting harder and harder to spot. I
remember talking with an Iwo Jima veteran at the El Toro Officer's club one
time. I was all of 23 years old and I tried really hard to be as respectful as
possible and pull as much of his story out of him as I
could. 
He was in the Navy, on an LST or some
other type of ship carrying Marines and he told me that he was singled out by
the Marines as someone who was especially helpful to them while they were
aboard. The night before they disembarked to land on the island, several of the
Marines came to him. They explained that most of them wouldn't be alive after
the morning was over. If there were a navy officer aboard that was particularly
disliked, they would take care of him in a permanent fashion before they
left.My drinking
companion told me that although he could name a few martinets in the ship's
wardroom, he quickly reassured them that he respected them all and didn't want
anything bad to happen to them. Almost fifty years after it happened, he still
seemed a bit taken aback by the whole proposition!
That story had a pretty
profound effect on me. The way this story was told, with a flourish that my
writing can't relate, made me have a bit of a better understanding of what it
takes to attack a determined and well-trained enemy. The schools may teach us
about brotherhood, camaraderie, and positive leadership, but the truth is that
you need men who can kill at the drop of a hat without remorse, and you need
hard leaders that can keep them in line. Administrative punishment means little
to men who face
bullets.I will always
admire those who can deliver the ferociousness that is needed to defend our
nation.  
Go Back to the Start, Do Not Collect $200 Send me your two cents
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