For the past 3 years I've made it a tradition to watch the "D-Day" episode of Band of Brothers to remind myself of what just a few of the men who participated in the invasion endured that day.
I've always been the type of person that had a great appreciation for our armed forces. My dad taught me that. He spent 6 years in the Army, found his way into the Special Forces and participated in Operation Urgent Fury. So from an early age, I was brought up with military stories and history lessons from my dad. But it wasn't until a few years ago that the military really struck an interest in me. Our satellite had been shut off for the entire summer and by the time June came around, I had watched just about every movie we owned. All I had left was one box set. Band of Brothers. It wasn't really my type of show, but it was all I had. And my life hasn't been the same ever since.
War is a complicated thing. Young boys will always be the ones doing the fighting. It's a childish game that will never come to an end until the one day that peace will rule all.
No one likes war. But we appreciate the ones who are willing to fight. The men who join face many mortal challenges and fears, and not just the willingness to shoot their weapon at another man, but the small things as well. Before my dad joined the 82nd Airborne, he'd never even flown in a plane, let alone jump out of one. It takes a lot of strength to face life's challenges, not to mention volunteering to face them not only for yourself but other fellow countrymen.
Sometimes days like this make me think, though. I sit here at my desk and look up at my great-grandfather's WWI helmet and the German helmet with which he returned home and I wonder about the hearts that once beat under these metal contraptions.
My great-grandpa Alexander is the one on the middle right. He too was just a boy when he entered the war, and so were the young men they were fighting. Darrell "Shifty" Powers summed up my thoughts in his Band of Brothers interview when he spoke of the men he shot in World War II:
"We might've had a lot in common. He might've liked to fish, yanno. He might've liked to hunt. Of course they were doing what they were supposed to do and I was doing what I was supposed to do. But under different circumstances we might have been good friends."
Sometimes I wonder what kind of man that boy could have grown up to be. I wonder if he had a girl waiting for him to come back to when he was done fighting. All I know is, everything happens for a reason. We don't always understand it when it hurts, but we've always got to have faith. As long as evil exists, war will rage on. And young men will continue to find themselves on the battlefield. And for that I will be eternally thankful.
For those men who serve, we thank you.
And for those men who never made it home to their mothers, words alone cannot express our gratitude.
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