I would like to post this Memorial Day.
My Dad was 16 years old when the Nazis invaded Ukraine. Hitler outlawed high school attendance and offered many youths the "opportunity" to go to Germany and work and earn some money and return in 3 months. 3 YEARS later my Dad is gaunt famished and working as a slave in Nazi labor camps.
Day and Night he is enduring bombing runs from the allies. One day leaflets are dropped and the factory where he was working was to be bombed that night. The Nazis chase everyone out into the adjoining fields to avoid the loss of life. That night my father slept on a bale of hay and watched his factory blow up and burn to the ground. The following morning he is awakened by the drone of wing of planes approaching from the horizen and coming over his head. There was a different sound to these planes. They were not bombers. The sky begins to be speckled with thousands of descending paratroopers. It was the AIRBORNE. Word was out that you wanted to be captured by the Americans. They treated you right and fed you. My Dad spun around as heard the commotion of a young GI rolling up his parachute. The paratrooper ran to my Dad and started barking out orders to get out of the area. He was shocked at my Dad's gaunt face and boils. My Dad did not understand so the soldier reached into his jacket and my Dad thought he was a dead man. The paratrooper pulled out Hershey Bar, Wrigley's Doublemint gum and combat rations. Best meal in 3 years. My Dad says he tasted freedom. My parents have always been grateful to the many who lost their lives liberating so many from bondage, tyranny and certain death.”
Thank you for all who given your life. There have countless people who have been on the “other side” who have been freed up to live.
