Not veering far off-topic, I hope, to recommend a favorite movie.
Posted on 12/07/2003 7:58:46 PM PST by yonif
INDIANAPOLIS - A generation of Americans who helped to defend the nation against aggression in Europe and the South Pacific six decades ago is quickly passing away, the veterans of World War II taking with them more than their memories of the horrors of battle.
"The nobility of the their effort has really defined them for what they are, in their eyes and in the eyes of the world," said Peter Kuznick, who teaches American history and culture at American University in Washington.
"They are engaged, They vote. They take their citizenship much more seriously than the younger generation," he said in an interview published in The Indianapolis Star on Sunday, the 62nd anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. "With their passing, we lose the wisdom of their life experiences, and a connection to a much different era."
The Star reported in an eight-page tribute to World War II veterans that of the 16.1 million people who served in the U.S. military during the war, 4.4 million survive. Even with expanding life expectancy, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that there will be fewer than 2 million remaining in seven years.
Indiana's World War II veterans population is about 90,000, the Star reported, and they are dying at a rate of 21 a day - nearly 8,000 a year.
Fading with them, the Star said, is a certain idealism and a sense of community.
Their generation is a "front porch" society, an era when people spent a summer evening with their neighbors, not in isolation with home computers and television sets, said Jack Querfeld, director of internal affairs for the American Legion.
Air Force pilot Bill Cummings, 82 of Ladoga, flew 50 missions over Europe during World War II, then 24 missions over Korea and 28 over Vietnam. The retired lieutenant colonel continues to serve, now as a member of burial teams with American Legion Post 72 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3284 in Crawfordsville.
He has served at 30 funerals this year, most of them for World War II veterans.
"You know it's going to happen to you one of these days," Cummings said. "You just hope the fellas are interested enough to have a little ceremony."
Not veering far off-topic, I hope, to recommend a favorite movie.
No amount of gratitude can make up what they did for us.
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