We Are Eternally Indebted To Wwii Generation

It’s 1943 and I am 7. Every evening, I listen to the Richfield Reporter report the difficulties our soldiers, sailors and airmen are experiencing on all war fronts. My companions and I play war games, hoping someday to emulate our older brothers; as we fall off to sleep, we dream of becoming heroes like them.

Our lives are filled with talk about war exploits, both real and imaginary. Then, suddenly, a bomb is dropped, the war is over and our imaginary futures vanish. No longer will I become a Marine or a P-38 fighter pilot ace wiping Zeroes from the Pacific skies.

I feel deep loss. It is not easy to give up your future.

As a generation, World War II vets rose to the military challenge and fulfilled futures undreamed of by their rural parents. They returned with a vision that carried the country for 50 years.

Now, like morning fog, they are vanishing, supplanted by their 80 million children who remember and appreciate nothing or little of their struggle.

Thank you, World War II vets, men and women, for winning the war, for struggling worldwide to advance freedom, for protecting domestic freedoms and the Bill of Rights, for advancing social justice, for building the economy, for advancing education, for protecting the country from external military threats and for making it impossible for me to die heroically in battle and thus giving me a full life. Thank you for taking care of the young and the old.

It often seems that your children have forgotten or never knew what the world could have been like without your efforts. It seems that, sometimes, they are advancing political philosophies that lead to the very enslavement you fought to eliminate.

Sometimes, it just seems as if each generation must learn anew the hard lessons of liberty.

My advice is to take pride in your generation and its accomplishments. Your children will have to find and struggle for liberty in unimaginable ways. Let them go and give them your blessing.

But you, women and men of the war years, can walk into eternity with heads held high and no excuses needed. From my heart, thank you all for your huge efforts and accomplishments. Thank you for giving me a future.

MEMO: “Your turn” is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a “Your turn” column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write “Your turn,” The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane 99210-1615.