Memorial Day

WW II Memorial, Washington, D.C. (4 April 2005)

With Memorial Day approaching, I was sent an e-mail by a friend.  The link in the message was to a site where you can see a 2-minute trailer for a full-length documentary about Operation Resolve. 

http://media.causes.com/1060527?p_id=175378540

This is the cause that seeks to fly our remaining World War II veterans to Washington, D.C. to take them to the National WW II Memorial on the Mall.

I have often referred to myself as the ‘Vanguard of the Baby Boom’ since I was born nine months after my father returned from Asia in 1945.  In 1944, my parents eloped from the Bronx to Maryland for a quickie wedding and after a short honeymoon in Atlantic City, he shipped out to North Africa.

He was an artist by training and had what they then called a high ‘mechanical IQ’.  Consequently, his job in the Army was anti-demolition…disarming bombs and land mines.  Given that this particular category of soldier had among the highest casualty rates, I am lucky to be here.  He should be here, too.  He would have turned 88 this August and I don’t know what kind of old man he would have been because he died 35 years ago.

I also have no idea what his war experience was like because he didn’t talk about it.  Worse still, my immature, self-centered persona never thought to ask him about what had to be the most exciting and scary time of his life.  I’m sure he never left New York City before he eloped and a month later, he was fighting for his country on the other side of the world. 

Ted Ringger Sr. (1944)



I found the Honor Flight trailer very touching and I applaud this effort to recognize and celebrate the last members of the Greatest Generation.  Give it a view…I dare you not to feel emotional by the end of it.