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Veterans' Day
Nov. 11th, 2008 12:12My father never spoke of the war. I knew from my mother that he was in the Army in WWII, and that he served on Okinawa. There was a picture in one of our encyclopedias of MacArthur visiting a battleship, and that my father was on that ship when the picture was taken (though he's not in picture).
He had a pair of silver spurs he told me once, and only once, he'd gotten from a Japanese officer, but never said if that officer was dead or alive at the time. As an adult, my guess is that officer was dead.
It was only a few years ago, when my mother died and my sister and I had lots of time in the car to talk, that I learned he was something called a "machine gunner", that he never rose above the rank of Private First Class.
I learned that, as the smallest man in his platoon, it was his job to crawl down into the hidey-holes and flush out - or confirm the deaths of - the Japanese soldiers after the flamethrowers had done their work.
I wouldn't talk about any of that either.
He had a pair of silver spurs he told me once, and only once, he'd gotten from a Japanese officer, but never said if that officer was dead or alive at the time. As an adult, my guess is that officer was dead.
It was only a few years ago, when my mother died and my sister and I had lots of time in the car to talk, that I learned he was something called a "machine gunner", that he never rose above the rank of Private First Class.
I learned that, as the smallest man in his platoon, it was his job to crawl down into the hidey-holes and flush out - or confirm the deaths of - the Japanese soldiers after the flamethrowers had done their work.
I wouldn't talk about any of that either.
