The Old Guys

Glance through the obituaries and you'll see the World War II generation. The old guys are dying off.

Those of us born shortly after the war practically grew up with it. Television had "Victory at Sea" and other documentaries and we had family members and neighbors who'd gone through the war. We were inundated with WWII.

One odd childhood memory I have is of listening to a U.S. Navy veteran of the campaign in the Pacific talking about the war with another neighbor, a German immigrant who'd served in the German Navy after a stint in the Hitler Youth. [I always thought the latter seemed a little too nostalgic for those days.]

Now the remaining survivors are passing away. Most of the vets in the obituaries have not left behind any recorded memories of their experiences. Although many would choose not to do so, each loss represents a small gap in our history. Some day in the future, we will be shocked at our failure to make even minor efforts to save their reminiscences.