Flight Pundit

You haven’t seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky.

- Amelia Earhart

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Since Cindy Sheehan is so busy trying to take over the news this week, I thought this would be a nice counter to her crap. Most families of soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice respect President Bush, and know he is a real person who has a heart and a soul. Many have set up their own little protests down near Crawford Ranch. Meanwhile, the President does the very difficult but important things.

Aug. 22, 2005 issue - The grieving room was arranged like a doctor’s office. The families and loved ones of 33 soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan were summoned to a large waiting area at Fort Bragg, N.C. For three hours, they were rotated through five private rooms, where they met with President George W. Bush, accompanied by two Secret Service men and a photographer. Because the walls were thin, the families awaiting their turn could hear the crying inside.

This has to be one of the toughest jobs for any President to do. This President does it with class.

President Bush was wearing “a huge smile,” but his eyes were red and he looked drained by the time he got to the last widow, Crystal Owen, a third-grade schoolteacher who had lost her husband in Iraq. “Tell me about Mike,” he said immediately. “I don’t want my husband’s death to be in vain,” she told him. The president apologized repeatedly for her husband’s death. When Owen began to cry, Bush grabbed her hands. “Don’t worry, don’t worry,” he said, though his choking voice suggested that he had worries of his own. The president and the widow hugged. “It felt like he could have been my dad,” Owen recalled to NEWSWEEK. “It was like we were old friends. It almost makes me sad. In a way, I wish he weren’t the president, just so I could talk to him all the time.”

Go over to Wizbang to read even more thoughts about this event. It’s time to pay attention to the families who respect the President as well, not just those who ae protesting him.

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This is a day late, but I couldn’t do any blogging yesterday from work. I found this story about retired US Marines who remember VJ Day in 1945.

It’s an old shop, rickety even, along a gravel way that leads to White Oak River. A motorist driving by the building on Deer Island Road might think it’s just a dusty warehouse devoted to housing junk.

But inside, the stacks and piles that look like clutter are shards of history from World War II.

WWII was before my time so I have no memories of it. But my father was a veteran and I recall many of the tales he shared with us when we were little. It was a different country back then. People had much more pride in America than they do now, and the country wasn’t as divided.

This weekend marks 60 years since the Japanese surrendered to the Allies. As time passes, the number of veterans who survived the war shrinks, but those who remain keep telling the stories.

60 years ago seems so long but it’s just a piece of dust along the timeline of history. I have tapes of Oral Histories from many WWII soldiers. Everyone should have a set. To never forget what they went through.

The man who owns that garage in Swansboro is one of them.

Eighty-four-year-old Arthur Hopfer, a retired Marine, fought in legendary Pacific theater battles: Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Guam.

And he survived the three worst battles of the war.

Retired Marine Tom Craigg, 87, is another.

The Jacksonville resident fought in the Pacific, too, but he was trapped for 40 months behind the barbed wire of brutal Japanese prison camps.

And he survived yet another kind of horror.

Hopfer has mementos.
Craigg only has memories.
Both men have the same desire: Ensuring that the war is never forgotten.

‘Close Calls’

Hopfer’s got it all: guns and bullets and pistol belts; three Jeeps in various states of assembly; photographs and flags and medals. A large clock scrawled with Korean words still works, but Hopfer never winds it. He found the 8-inch Navy shell casing in a junkyard.

The multiple pictures of Marines hoisting an American flag above Iwo Jima were taken as Hopfer watched from below.

I would have loved to have been there to see that Flag go up. And I would really like to go visit these men and look through their collections. Real history, from those who lived through it.

Go read the rest of this story. It’s worth the few minutes you’ll need, and you’ll be inspired. One last quote from the article:

The legacy of men like Craigg and Hopfer will remain when they are gone. Hopfer says he plans to donate some of his memorabilia to the future Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas. And Craigg has been working with the Congressional Research Service, which is recording his story.

Semper Fi

Cross Posted @ ARS

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