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atypicalsub -> For a Nobel Cause (5/25/2009 9:21:01 AM)
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I wrote this on Memorial Day, 2001, in reflection of my father. I was never close to him and he never told us what happened to him during his service in France during WWII. Piecing together fragments and clues about him this is what I understand.
For a Noble Cause
Think of what veterans did.
Not as a group but as individuals.
They were your neighbors, sons, brothers,
cousins, uncles, husbands and fathers.
They were bus drivers, bakers, store clerks,
farmers, accountants and carpenters.
They volunteered
or reported as ordered when the call came.
They were given equipment and taught to fight.
They were prepared in body,
but no one helped to prepare their minds.
They were men.
They were just told to "be tough".
They were made into soldiers and sailors.
They were sent to places around the world,
sometimes to countries they'd never heard of.
They were told our cause was just and good,
and that this was reason to kill.
They were told to kill and to keep killing,
until there was no one left to shoot back.
They were told to keep fighting,
while they watched the men they ate and slept with die around them.
They saw hundreds, maybe thousands of dead bodies.
They saw things most of us can't imagine,
and would try not to think about if we could.
They were normal men
sent to do terrible things
"for a noble cause".
Decades later, many of them still cannot talk about what they did or saw.
Most of us, really don't want to know.
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