IN DEDICATION: To my family, and to those that sacrificed and paid the ultimate price for our liberty.

Today, May 30, 2004, I had the chance to see some of the most valiant men and women to have lived. Men and women who had grown up knowing hardship and privation, toil and trouble, and then just as they were about to become members of society, have to deal with war. I am speaking of the World War II generation. Today I attended the "Lost Boat" ceremonies at the USS Silversides for all of the Submarine Vets of the U.S. Navy, particularly those of WW II. As I listened to the speeches and saw these old, tired men, their wives, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, I couldn't help but think that I was looking at the passing of history. Somehow I was watching people who I had greatly admired leave me for the last, final time. I was, in effect saying a long, slow goodbye.

Perhaps a little background for you is in order, here. I grew up living with my maternal grandparents and mother after she divorced my father. These folks got their start in life just before the Great Depression. My grandfather and grandmother did whatever they had to in order to make it. My Grandfather worked as a machinist at Campbell, Wyant, and Cannon foundries, and my Grandmother became a homemaker, helping to take care of her sisters and brother, after the sudden passing of her father, as well as my mother. They worked hard through those years without complaint and managed to make it. Then, just when things started to look up: War. It meant more hardship and struggle. My uncles Gerald and Bud would go and fight in different corners of the globe, my father would go to the Pacific and serve on Navy Transports. My Grandfather made the tools used in the arsenal of Democracy. He machined all sorts of camshafts and other components for ships, tanks, trucks, and airplanes. In his own way, he also fought the war along with millions of other Americans.

After the war, they went on with their lives. They never talked much about that time other than the stories of hearing about my uncle Buddy going missing in action during the Battle of the Bulge, then receiving the good news that he was alive and in a German POW camp. Much of what they talked about was the Depression and how hard life was then compared to "now" and how little we appreciated that.

They are both gone now, along with uncles Buddy and Gerald. Not a day goes by that I do not note their loss in little ways and wish, just for a few moments, to talk to them just for a little while. That is not, of course to be. So, I look to the lessons their generation left me. I also look to those men and women who have been another big influence -- the people of the WW II generation, the Greatest Generation. These folks are real superheroes. Not necessarily because of anything particular that they may have done, but just for managing to SURVIVE both the Great Depression AND the Second World War, coming through it all with their sanity, good humor, and optimism. These people are simply amazing. Look at their big accomplishments.

They manage to make it through the Great Depression and to fight WW II. Surviving it would be fine, but they WON the war. Then, just after they come home, settle down, get back to trying to live a normal life, they get called back to service for the Korean War. Then, finally, they have some peace, raise a family, and make America the number one industrial power in the world, at the time.

So do these folks stand up and trumpet their accomplishments? Were they calling for big monuments and for folks to remember them? No. On the whole, the way they put was "just doing my job...just doing what needed to be done." Most of these people just went back to trying to live a normal life, or at least as normal a life as possible given what they had gone through.

Finally, in the twilight of their years, they get the memorial they so justly deserve. This isn't to denigrate the warriors of the Korean War, the Cold War, Vietnam War, Gulf War or any other period. ALL of the men and women who have put on the uniform in peace and war deserve our thanks and respect. Still, what makes the WW II vets so special is the fact that they took part in such a momentous event and then just went back to being who they were. Maybe that says something about us as a nation. We didn't enslave our fallen enemies. No, we went to their aid to rebuild them and make them strong again. In so doing, we taught them and the rest of the world the power of forgiveness.

These people were optimistic even through the Depression and the bitterness and despair of WW II, the confusion and divide of Korea and Vietnam, and came through it working to make our nation great. In the twilight of their years they have received the marble and bronze memorial placed in high honor on The Mall of our nation's capital. It is to them, The Greatest Generation, we owe a great debt of gratitude and thanks. God Bless you, members of The Greatest Generation. May our efforts be worthy of your sacrifice. May we live up to your standards.

Postscript: June 11, 2004

I am watching the final farewell for President Ronald Reagan. I know some did not like him or his policies, but he dearly loved this country and worked with all his effort to see it be the best place on Earth. As President Reagan put it, "A shining city on a hill." He was an optimist, like so many of his generation. That generation did not have the blessings of the wealth and material prosperity that we now have, but they were a wealthy generation nonetheless. Their wealth was in the spirit. Theirs was a wealth of optimism and hope. It was a belief that the glass was not just half full, but that a fresh pitcher of water was on the way to fill it again. Goodbye, President Reagan, and we thank you. May we be worthy of the legacy you have left us.