THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509220198
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Another View
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
For more than a year, we as a nation have celebrated the 50th anniversary of every major victory and with a saddened heart, memorialized our defeats of World War II. As close as I can recall, it began with the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landing in France on June 6, 1944. And it has concluded with V-J Day celebrations commemorating Sept. 2, 1945.
As an American and a soldier myself, I understand the need to celebrate and remember many of these historic events. Nevertheless, I can't help but feel that as a nation we may be forgetting to say thank you to some of our most heroic veterans of WWII. These veterans are the men, and in many cases the women, whose names are not listed in the history books. Nor will you find them inscribed on any memorial. They are a living anniversary of all of those great victories and terrible defeats. They are your neighbors and family members whose heroic deeds were just to be there and do their job. Being there could have meant anything: crew member aboard a ship or plane, cooking chow for the infantry, fighting hand-to-hand on an island no one will ever hear about or training our troops to go overseas.
This fact was somewhat surreptitiously pointed out to me as I was interviewing an uncle for a college paper and possibly a book detailing his time of service during WWII. Out of respect for my uncle's wishes, I will refer to him only as Lewis and not go into great detail with reference to my interviews with him.
As I sat and listened to Lewis tell me about the war, I realized how much sacrifice individuals made for the overall good of the nation during this period.
Lewis was a sailor aboard an anti-aircraft destroyer that participated in every major battle during the last half of the war. Without exception, I feel that I can honestly say he and others like him saw and faced things that many of us today would shudder to think about. He landed with the Marines at Saipan and called in the naval gunfire as they made their assault on the beach. At times, it seemed as if they were being slaughtered with machine gunfire as they attempted to take the island. Lewis also was at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and many others. During this period, an accident took place similar to the one aboard the Iowa in the late 1980s. As terrible as the accident was, it changed, for the better, a part of the way naval gunnery is conducted today.
At the end of the war, Lewis helped bring half-dead, half-starved American POWs out of the caves of these fortified islands. He explained to me that these sacrifices had to be made then so that we can have the freedoms we have today and every soldier, sailor, and airman knew this truth.
As the interviews progressed, I realized that this could only be told in a book. My uncle Lewis, who is somewhat modest by nature and reluctant to discuss the war, hedged at the idea of a book. Although I was disappointed at his reluctance, his reasons are most admirable and I truly understand his thinking.
First of all, he did not want someone to think that he was bragging about himself or was trying to minimize someone else's bravery. In his eyes, every soldier, sailor and airman was equally brave for just being there.
Secondly, and probably the most important reason: true patriotism. During his time in the Navy and more specifically during combat, he felt that there were times when we, as a fighting force, made mistakes. In other words, men's lives were lost and one would have to question whether or not it was necessary. If a book was written detailing any of these accounts, one might ask the question whether or not America's involvement in the war was necessary. Who of us now have a right to question what was done then?
The idea of hanging America's 50-year-old dirty laundry out for criticism by a generation that does not seem to understand the circumstances they faced then, was not a soldier's way of handling the situation. Today, this same generation asks if we should have dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. If you were one of those thousands of men who were projected to die during the invasion, I believe you would agree that it was the best solution at that time.
The very nature of war is to break things and kill people. The more stuff of theirs we break and the more of them we kill will enhance our chances of winning. As a whole, our most indecisive victories came when we were trying to negotiate peace while trying to wage war at the same time. If we are going to remain a world leader and be called upon militarily, the only way to pursue peace is to crush battlefield enemies and then bring peace to the table on your own terms.
Most of our failures and triumphs of WWII have been discussed at length by historians and scholars alike. My uncle Lewis's exploits may never be known to anyone else but me, but that is probably the way it should be for now. I feel that he has given me a special trust on an important part of his life and I also feel privileged to have had this history shared with me.
So the next time you get the chance to celebrate with the people who gave us the reason to celebrate in the first place, take the time to say thank you for being there and more importantly coming back. I have the greatest respect for my uncle and I thank him for a greater understanding of a war and time period that was in the history books before I was even born.
Gary V. Wassman
Foxgrape Road
Sept. 20, 1995 by CNB