The Great Raid… I am 82 years old and my generation is quite familiar with where and how these brave men stood for us and the many storied battles that took place. On this Veterans Day I remember Poland, Hungary. I Remember Dachau, Auschwitz and those camps were only two of some 20 total concentration camps. Dunkirk, the White Cliffs of Dover, London and the blitz then Normandy Beach, Anzio. War and hate knows no boundaries and with that thought along comes the Japanese. Remember Pearl Harbor, the war in the Pacific. General MacArthur and the plight of the Philippines. In all these places, people lost their lives and many of our young man died. And all across Europe and the Pacific American soldiers, men and women died to free others. It has been said that the only thing we ever asked of any of these countries or places was just enough ground to bury our dead. But man’s evil and the war it brings, seems like we never learn its lesson. They didn’t call it a war. they called it a conflict, the Korean conflict. I probably left something out, but then I’m an old man and my memory is not as well as it used to be, but I do remember very well, The Vietnam war. A war that changed a whole generation and called up the very best it had to offer and destroyed them in a political war that gained nothing.

Gleaming white alabaster crosses, marking the places where they lay at last in peace. Granite and stone walls that listed the names of those who died. I wrote this today to remember a battle that many of you don’t know about. It came to life in a book and a film that was made in 2005 called the great raid. The great raid is based on a true story of the January 30,1945 rescue of over 500 allies prisoners of war from the Japanese run Cabanatuan camp in the Philippines. It was led by US Army Rangers and Alamo Scouts, with the crucial support of Filipino guerrillas. It is considered one of the most successful rescue missions in US military history. The mission saved prisoners who had endured the brutal Bataan death march and other atrocities. As I wrote this, I thought about the hundreds of other little battles that occurred during these wars that we know nothing about. Death could be a very lonely thing and I’m not so sure that how you died matters as much as what you die for. With all that’s happening in our nation today I kind of feel like that 101 year-old Englishman who the other day made the statement I don’t think that all of what we went through was worth it. One more thing about my writing this. I never served in the military and having written this tonight and remembering all of these things I feel ashamed. I offer my humble prayer of thanks to those who stood for me. God bless them all.

Kurt