Comments on: What is Lost When Veterans Pass?

By: Bill Starvler

Bill Starvler — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:52:30 +0000

I hope that future generations understand WWII the same way anyone living today, or during the war understood it. The past wars like the Civil War seem so impersonal without veterans. WWII shouldn't become impersonal.

By: Bryan Sndyer

Bryan Sndyer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:49:17 +0000

The question is what can the younger generations do to help history survive? I am 38 years old am both grandparents are long since passed who did serve in WWII. I am a veteran that is interested in gathering stories with a digital voice recorder and help preserve these blocks of history. Would the local VFW be a good place to start?

By: Robert Walker, WW2 Veteran

Robert Walker, WW2 Veteran — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:32:40 +0000

I am a WW2 Veteran, 2806 Army Engineers, went to Japan in Mid 1945 until Dec. 10. 1946. I am looking for other Veterans that served during this same time. I am 85 years and is desparately looking for information.

I can be reached either by by above email or please feel free to call:

678-369-6235 Home Phone

Hope to hear from Veteran or family member(s).
Thank you,
Robert Walker

By: Donald E. Casey, Sr. JD/DFC

Donald E. Casey, Sr. JD/DFC — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:14:00 +0000

I say: yes, Americans will step and pay the price should that become necessary. They're already doing it in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot but non-shooting zones such as Korea, Europe among others.

However, I see no possibility for a World War III on the scale of WWII. The Muslim world lacks the unanimity, Communist China has already realized the advantages of exploiting free enterprise and is unable to return to the brutal days of its dictatorship andRussia cannot afford to continue to make the kinds of mistakes its centralized planners have made in the last 80 years particularly in the event the West succeeds in throwing off the chains of addiction to foreign oil and adapts to nuclear power. (The hysteria about nuclear waste surely will succumb to technology's victory over this problem at long last. The real problem with acceptance of nuclear power is that it works too well and solves all the problems of global warming leaving nothing for the aficionados of "Chicken Little" to cry about.)

By: raz

raz — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:04:07 +0000

As a 33-year old who had the pleasure of knowing war veterans from World War 2, Vietnam and 1st Desert Storm.. I completely agree. I have fired shots in anger, but never in battle.. and the feelings I had then as I pulled the trigger, knowing that this bullet will either kill or maim another like me.. is impossible to share with others who were not there, but automatically known by those who were.

I remember as a child hearing from my grandfathers and their friends the ferocity of combat with the Japanese Imperial Guard in the Malayan theater.. I remember these same old men recounting their experiences in the Malayan communist insurgency.. I even got to unite these old men (for the first and last time) with my American friends who served in Vietnam and 1st Desert Storm. And what stories they told!

I know that as I grow older, more of the truth will come out, and these men that I knew as a child will turn out to have human traits.. and had to do inhuman things in order to serve their country. But that will not change how I adore them.. and even we the young have a duty to pass this on to the next generation, in order to remind them that the price of freedom and liberty can be very high indeed.. payable by everyone to swears allegiance to their flag.

"Will you be able to pay that price.. when the time comes?"

By: B. Kosmider

B. Kosmider — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:08:39 +0000

Each participant's experience's of WW II were unique, and significant in their own way: that has to be the first principle.
If the veteran does not wish to talk about them, even to his own family, this is a tragedy: his experiences will go to the grave with him, all that personal history will be lost.
This happened to me. My father was Polish officer, who spent the duration of the war as a German POW in various camps. In my entire life, I recall being able to goad him into talking (superficially) about this time, only once. Adult children move away, life goes on, but that time stands still in a way, unless there is an active, conscious effort to find out, as much as possible, before it is to late.
Family difficulty, personal reticence should not prevent a full attempt to be made to have these stories come to light, because they are history.
All that remains after these men die, if their stories went untold, is a blank page, a void, which can never really be filled.