Long time passing...
Late Friday evening I received a call from my old fraternity brother John Stephens. John lives in Houston, works in Pasadena California, but was calling from Bangs, Texas where he was visiting his folks. His Dad was the country doctor there for well over half a century. John was calling to see if I knew of the Iwo Jima 60th anniversary memorial and re-enactment being held at The National Musuem of the Pacific War a.k.a The Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas and to see if we might consider meeting him there.
In fact it had not dawned on me that this weekend was the anniversary of the landings on Iwo Jima, and I think that if we had had just a little more notice we might have gone to Fredericksburg and met John for the event. Julie and I have been fairly regular visitors to the town and specifically the Nimitz Museum. Our friend, author Joe Galloway of We Were Soldiers fame has been a speaker there several times in the last years.
John's call Friday night did,however, get me thinking about the sacrifice those who fought not only at Iwo Jima, but all over the Pacific made all those years ago. And more particularly I started to think of all those men I have known over my lifetime who did participate in that fierce fighting but are now sadly gone from our midst. Men like my old scoutmaster and former Marine Bill Bosworth who just passed away 2 or 3 years ago. I'm not sure Bill was at Iwo Jima, but I know that he landed at Tarawa...I remember him telling us.
Bill was a big man, had a deep booming voice, and looked quite like Robert Mitchum at least to an 11 year old boy scout. He was the epitome of a Marine and like any good Marine he told things like they were. When boys sitting around a campfire tended to make South Pacific island combat a glamorous thing....Bill told us by his facial expressions that it was not. The only time I remember him telling us directly about his experiences it seemed that this big burly guy was about to cry....
We got to hear many stories sitting around a campfire and when I look back on those days growing up with Bill and other veterans of my father's age as my role models I still can see them all as were then, young men in their late 30's. When I was in scouts and these men talked about their combat experiences this was only 17 or 18 years after they had occured. It is now 60 years, or more, hence and so many of the combat veterans of World War II are gone. That's what I remember most about this Iwo Jima anniversary weekend.....I miss the old guys who made that history.
Update: Courtesy of reader, Ms. Durst, in Fredericksburg catch the story from onsite here.. Iwo Jimo Salute
Late Friday evening I received a call from my old fraternity brother John Stephens. John lives in Houston, works in Pasadena California, but was calling from Bangs, Texas where he was visiting his folks. His Dad was the country doctor there for well over half a century. John was calling to see if I knew of the Iwo Jima 60th anniversary memorial and re-enactment being held at The National Musuem of the Pacific War a.k.a The Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas and to see if we might consider meeting him there.
In fact it had not dawned on me that this weekend was the anniversary of the landings on Iwo Jima, and I think that if we had had just a little more notice we might have gone to Fredericksburg and met John for the event. Julie and I have been fairly regular visitors to the town and specifically the Nimitz Museum. Our friend, author Joe Galloway of We Were Soldiers fame has been a speaker there several times in the last years.
John's call Friday night did,however, get me thinking about the sacrifice those who fought not only at Iwo Jima, but all over the Pacific made all those years ago. And more particularly I started to think of all those men I have known over my lifetime who did participate in that fierce fighting but are now sadly gone from our midst. Men like my old scoutmaster and former Marine Bill Bosworth who just passed away 2 or 3 years ago. I'm not sure Bill was at Iwo Jima, but I know that he landed at Tarawa...I remember him telling us.
Bill was a big man, had a deep booming voice, and looked quite like Robert Mitchum at least to an 11 year old boy scout. He was the epitome of a Marine and like any good Marine he told things like they were. When boys sitting around a campfire tended to make South Pacific island combat a glamorous thing....Bill told us by his facial expressions that it was not. The only time I remember him telling us directly about his experiences it seemed that this big burly guy was about to cry....
We got to hear many stories sitting around a campfire and when I look back on those days growing up with Bill and other veterans of my father's age as my role models I still can see them all as were then, young men in their late 30's. When I was in scouts and these men talked about their combat experiences this was only 17 or 18 years after they had occured. It is now 60 years, or more, hence and so many of the combat veterans of World War II are gone. That's what I remember most about this Iwo Jima anniversary weekend.....I miss the old guys who made that history.
Update: Courtesy of reader, Ms. Durst, in Fredericksburg catch the story from onsite here.. Iwo Jimo Salute
