Veterans Day in America

I'm a veteran.   A lucky one.   Although I served (was drafted) during the height of the Vietnam War...I was not put in harms way...like my older brother.   My overseas assignment was to Geissen, Germany.

War?   War?   It's male testosterone on steroids.   There was an article in the New York Times a few weeks ago titled..."An Iwo Jima Relic Binds Generations".

It's the story of an American soldier, Frank Hobbs, now 85 years old,...who had never seen a dead person before.   Before Iwo Jima that is!   7,000 Americans died on Iwo Jima, 20,000 more were wounded, and more than 21,000 Japanese died.

Hobbs happened to stumble across the body of a dead Japanese solder.   He found an envelope on the dead soldier's body.   That envelope contained a child’s colorful drawing — of youngsters lined up for an air-raid drill with buckets and padded garb — and a photograph of a baby.


“It seemed to me it was a terrible waste for just that little island,” Mr. Hobbs said in an interview at his home in Chestnut Hill, Mass.   “I also realized how terrible war is, and how people die for really not a heck of a lot.”

Almost 64 years later...he met the baby in that Japanese photo.   And yes Mr. Hobbs...damn near all wars are a terrible waste...and people die for really not a heck of a lot!