Yesterday, I took our son to a WWII veterans presentation at our library. There were five men from our town who were interviewed about their memories of and lessons learned from the war.
The common themes from all five were:
*learn to obey
*take personal responsibility
*utilize teamwork
*be thankful to be an American
*life is precious
Only one man mentioned prayer. Paul Murphy was on the U.S.S. Indianapolis which was hit by a Japanese torpedo just days before the war ended. Approximately 300 men died when the boat sank in 12 minutes. Around 900 men survived the sinking and were adrift at sea in shark-infested waters for four days/five nights before being discovered and picked up. Of those, only 317 survived. Murphy cries easily since suffering a stroke. But, I think he'd cry, stroke or not, whenever he remembers those who died. He said he learned to pray like it really meant something during that time in the water. I'll bet.
On the way home my son said, "I didn't want to be in a war before. Now I REALLY don't want to be in a war unless it's absolutely necessary."
Thank you to all of our troops: past, present, and future.
(photo of Paul Murphy, taken at a 2004 speech)
No comments:
Post a Comment