JB
Honorary Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2001
- Messages
- 45,907
For a lot of us honoring war dead is kind of impersonal, except, of course, for those who have had a loved one or close friends give all for our country.
I lost friends in Korea and Nam and I have had acquaintances lose sons in the Middle East, but the losses that hurt me most were a group of young men that I knew for only a few days.
I grew up in the Southern Pines/Pinehurst area of the NC Sandhills. Today it is known as golf country, but in 1943 it was airborne training country. Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall were nearby.
I think it was the spring of 1943 that the 101st Airborne held maneuvers in our neighborhood. One squad set up a position in our back yard, digging foxholes and camoflaging the resulting mounds of sand.
Mom sent my sister and me out to take them hot coffee and sandwiches. My sister, who was on the threshold of puberty, thought that their Sergeant, Sandy, was the most beautiful human being she had ever seen. We made friends with the whole squad and swapped them coffee and sandwiches for chocolate from their K rations. I was entranced by their tales of training and jumping out of airplanes. In just a few days they were gone. . . shipped out for England.
My Sis wroted to Sandy regularly and treasured his letters.
Then, in January of 1945, one of her letters was returned along with a letter from a Captain telling her that Sandy and his squad had treasured her letters and that they had been very good for their morale. . .reminding them weekly what they were fighting for. But, he said, the entire squad had been overwhelmed and died in battle at Bastogne. He offered condolences.
To this day my most poignant memories of that war are of Sandy and his small band of boys who cheerfully and fearlessly went off to save Freedom and Liberty for us. . . for my Sis. . . and today, I imagine, rest in a Flanders Field for eternity. May they rest in honored glory.
I lost friends in Korea and Nam and I have had acquaintances lose sons in the Middle East, but the losses that hurt me most were a group of young men that I knew for only a few days.
I grew up in the Southern Pines/Pinehurst area of the NC Sandhills. Today it is known as golf country, but in 1943 it was airborne training country. Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall were nearby.
I think it was the spring of 1943 that the 101st Airborne held maneuvers in our neighborhood. One squad set up a position in our back yard, digging foxholes and camoflaging the resulting mounds of sand.
Mom sent my sister and me out to take them hot coffee and sandwiches. My sister, who was on the threshold of puberty, thought that their Sergeant, Sandy, was the most beautiful human being she had ever seen. We made friends with the whole squad and swapped them coffee and sandwiches for chocolate from their K rations. I was entranced by their tales of training and jumping out of airplanes. In just a few days they were gone. . . shipped out for England.
My Sis wroted to Sandy regularly and treasured his letters.
Then, in January of 1945, one of her letters was returned along with a letter from a Captain telling her that Sandy and his squad had treasured her letters and that they had been very good for their morale. . .reminding them weekly what they were fighting for. But, he said, the entire squad had been overwhelmed and died in battle at Bastogne. He offered condolences.
To this day my most poignant memories of that war are of Sandy and his small band of boys who cheerfully and fearlessly went off to save Freedom and Liberty for us. . . for my Sis. . . and today, I imagine, rest in a Flanders Field for eternity. May they rest in honored glory.
