I know someone whose father went AWOL during World War II. Drafted into the US Army and promoted to Corporal, he was working in an Army camp office in New Jersey when a huge piece of news hit his desk. Just before the weekend he learned his unit was to be sent to Europe on a ship leaving Monday morning. Because the families of many men lived too far from camp to allow for quick round trips home, no final leaves would be granted before their departure.
His family, however, a wife and three children lived only a short train ride away. So what did he do? He boarded a train and traveled home to say goodbye to his wife and three young girls, one of whom was only a few months old. When he reported back to camp the next day, he was demoted to private and, without further punishment, boarded the ship with his company for the Atlantic crossing.
I’ve sometimes wondered what I would have done in his shoes. I see both sides of their story — his and the army’s — as understandable. From the Army’s standpoint, if all soldiers did what he did, the whole military structure would crumble. Yet the man was being sent to a battle that might be his last. How could it be a crime for him to spend a few treasured hours with those he might never see again?
Here are some further Memorial Day thoughts and quotes:
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” ~ Albert Einstein
“Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books.” ~ Walt Whitman
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” ~ John F. Kennedy
Summer fare you might enjoy:
- Picnic in NYC with a King and a Guitar
- Picnic Lunch Ideas
- Spice Up your Barbecues with Recipes Galore
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