January 19, 2012

Remembering World War II

I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was a ten-year-old studying for a World War II unit test in the front room. As I struggled to memorize the strange names and places with which I had no associations, I became frustrated. In time, my father heard my complaints and came to my rescue. Taking my sheet of terms, he quizzed me on Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, even the four beaches assaulted on D-day. Then he asked me where the Battle of the Bulge took place. I was stumped. "I can’t remember it all, Dad," I said feebly.

With an intensity in his eyes that I rarely saw, he said, "You can never forget the Battle of the Bulge! I was there. Very few of my comrades returned home. I was the lucky one. If you forget everything else, never forget the Battle of the Bulge." Suddenly, that battle was real. It was no longer a piece of world history written on the pages of my fourth-grade textbook. My dad was there... Read More