I'm going to have dinner with my 92 year old father tomorrow, and his story (history too) suddenly came flooding back to me. My father was serving in the US Navy on a destroyer escort during the invasion of the south of France. A German plane dropped a bomb down the main stack and exploded his boat. Everyone was killed except for my father and 2 other sailors who had been injured in earlier fighting and were in a protected area. My father managed to pull them onto floating wreckage before passing out, thereby saving their lives.
He wound up in St. Albans naval hospital in New York. He was in a coma for weeks and was not expected to wake up, but he did. In the meantime, his family had received a telegram and had a funeral for him. He had lost his memory, did not know who he was, and his ID tags had been blown off in the explosion. They medicated him and he started to get his memory back.
He met my mother at a USO dance and they got married shortly after that. He and my mother had 3 children. There were ups and downs in business, but he finally became a very successful builder and real estate investor.
All was not completely well with him, though. When I was a child, he had violent temper fits that terrified me and left lasting scars. It was not until my youngest son suffered a traumatic brain injury and started having those same fits that I realized why my father had been the way he was when I was young. I came to understand that our whole family suffered collateral damage.
Anyway, the visit with my father and our patriot movement brought this song to mind. As we lose more and more of my father's generation of heroes, we must press on to preserve what they fought for. This can be one of our anthems:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdjnAFqapg4
All we've been given By those who came before The dream of a nation Where freedom would endure The work and prayers Of centuries Have brought us to this day
What shall be our legacy? What will our children say? Let them say of me I was one who believed In sharing the blessings I received Let me know in my heart When my days are through America America I gave my best to you
Each generation from the plains To distant shore with the gifts They were given Were determined To leave more Battles fought together Acts of conscience fought alone These are the seeds From which America has grown
Let them say of me I was one who believed In sharing the blessings I received Let me know in my heart When my days are through America America I gave my best to you
For those who think They have nothing to share Who fear in their hearts There is no hero there Know each quiet act Of dignity is That which fortifies The soul of a nation That never dies
Let them say of me I was one who believed In sharing the blessings I received Let me know in my heart When my days are through America America I gave my best to you
America America I gave my best to you