Letter to Editor: A Debt of Gratitude

Today is Veterans’ Day. Like most older people, I recall all the parades and other forms of remembrance I observed and participated in growing up.  

That annual day of appreciation for the sacrifices our veterans have made for all of us has taken on more meaning since my father, a Navy veteran, died in 2000.

My Dad served in WWII and Korea and then served in the Naval Reserve for another 20 years after he left active service.  I know virtually nothing about what he experienced during those wars.  Like many other veterans of his era, he never talked about it.  When WWII ended, he came home and got on with his life.

Born in 1946, I was a charter member of the post-war baby boom.  I knew little about WWII because my American history courses never quite got to it before our school year ended.   However, a river cruise my husband and I took last summer reminded me of why we had to fight World War II and why we had to win it.  The cruise went north from Paris to Normandy, the site of the invasion that turned the tide of that war.

Our group visited one of the excellent museums in Normandy that shows visitors the horrors that led up to the war and what people suffered while it was being fought.  We also visited the American cemetery where over 9000 people who participated in the Normandy invasion are buried.  They are just some of the people who never came home.  When they left the ships that brought them to Normandy, they knew they might never go home again, but they went in anyway. That’s what we call sacrifice.

Many men and women since then have fought in other wars and served during peacetime, trying to prevent another world war like WWII.  We owe every one of them a debt of gratitude for keeping us all safe. If you see someone wearing a veteran’s cap or sporting a bumper sticker identifying them as a veteran, thank that person on behalf of all of us.  They have all earned our gratitude.

Linda Cades
Easton