I don't remember who said it, but I believe in this whole heartedly: "There is no such thing as a good war, only a necessary war." I look back on his statement and think that no one in the war was a "good guy." They were all killers. Numerous times, he had to order his buddies to their likely deaths. My grandfather got on his machine gun and mowed them down as they fled, all the while thinking about how they would do the same to him if the situations were reversed. At one point a tank in his battalion (or whatever the proper term would be) shot a German tank and the occupants got out to flee.
Now, when I think about it, that statement holds so much more meaning.
He said to us that he was one of the "bad guys," in a somewhat joking manner. Once when my brother and I were young we asked him which side he fought on (as we knew we have a lot of German heritage, but not enough to know how recent it was). My dad's dad was a tank commander and a lieutenant in Italy and France. Both of my grandfathers served in the war, but neither liked talking about it much. An entire generation of men (Americans and otherwise) were trained as killers with the intent of protecting their families and their eventual descendants. There is no way I can express the depth of gratitude for the sacrifice of these people on our behalf. Just thinking about it is making me tear up a bit here at work (I will admit that I'm a sentimental bastard, and a weepy one at that).
ENOLA GAY DEFINITION SERIES
I just finished watching the series last night. In is was stuff they had never talked about with anyone, not even their families, because they came back long before the concept of PTSD or anything like that, and soldiers were supposed to just flip a switch and become regular people again after V-Day. I haven't been watching the current PBS series 'The War', but it's my understanding that what you describe is the main idea: WWII stories, told by front-line soldiers, unvarnished. I hate that they don't much remember what happened to them 60+ years ago and they can't share what happened to them and the people around them. Both were a wealth of information (my father's dad served in the Merchant Marines in the Atlantic in WW2 and had his liberty ships sunk out from him a number of times, my mom's father is a Pearl Harbor survivor and served on destroyers in nearly every major Pacific battle). Be it German, Japanese, American, Canadian, Chinese, Australian, New Zealand, Russian, French and the dozens and dozens of other countries whom gave too much to make this world a little better than it was.īoth my grandfathers are still alive, but both are in the hospital, both with serious Alzihmers and not expected to live another year or two at the most. People readily forget exactly what all the Vet's of WW2 sacrificed for us. Its estimated by 2012 nearly 99% of all the WW2 vets will have passed. The loss of Tibbets means there is one less primary source about WWII (and about one of the most significant events in the war). There is one surviving WWI vet who saw action in the trenches (Harry Patch).