Walt Becker and I reunited all too briefly today at the Memorial Day ceremony at the Oregon Trail Veterans Cemetery. Walt (founder of the late, great Becker Fire Equipment Co. in Casper) and my dad were a few miles apart when the attack on Pearl Harbor began. My dad met him at a Pearl Harbor Survivors event in the 1990s. I interviewed him for the Star-Tribune (I had to seek him out, he never came to the paper seeking publicity) and wrote a 70-plus-inch story (thats really big in newspaper terms), which was about one-third of what he told me: Grew up in Sheridan, wanted to be career Navy, was a mechanic on the Oklahoma during the attack, swam through/under the harbor with all the burning fuel, reached shore, took a boat back to the Oklahoma and spent a couple of days trying to drill through the hull to find survivors. After the tapping and cries for help went silent, he signed on with the destroyer Blue, which sunk off Guadalcanal. Then he was on a carrier that was sunk by kamikazes. In other words, this humble master mechanic is a one-man Spielberg movie. Theres more, but you get the drift. He didnt ask for this. My dad didnt ask for this. Only wannabe soldiers (according to a lot of soldiers Ive met) ask for this. The War is Hell phrase-coiner, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who did his own part as a devils handmaid, reportedly said this in 1879: I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting — its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers ... it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated ... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation. Apparently the message didnt get through. So Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie tried again in 1964: Hes five feet two and hes six feet four He fights with missiles and with spears Hes all of thirty-one and hes only seventeen Hes been a soldier for a thousand years Hes a catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jane A Buddhist and a Baptist and Jew And he knows he shouldnt kill and he knows he always will kill Youll for me my friend and me for you And hes fighting for Canada, hes fighting for France Hes fighting for the USA And hes fighting for the Russians and hes fighting for Japan And he thinks well put an end to war this way And hes fighting for democracy hes fighting for the reds He says its for the peace of all Hes the one who must decide whos to live and whos to die And he never sees the writing on the wall But without him how would Hitler have condemned him at Le Val Without him Caesar would have stood alone Hes the one who gives his body as the weapon of the war And without him all this killing cant go on Hes the universal soldier and he really is to blame But his orders come from far away no more They come from him and you and me and brothers cant you see This is not the way we put an end to war? Thank you for indulging in my contradictions.
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 22:58:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015