June 28, 2007 Issue

It is almost the Fourth of July again and it is amazing how fast a year zips by these days. This year, more so than any I can ever remember, I am acutely aware of the multiple sacrifices made by men over the years for our freedom. From the very first revolutionaries some 200 plus years ago, to those fighting today, I am humbled by the actions of ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

Possibly my intense admiration has something to do with having just watched Band of Brothers, which is a 10-part mini-series shown on HBO some years ago. I had never seen it and my colleague Bruce Collier, who is something of a history buff, owned the set and loaned it to me. The movie followed the very first company of Army paratroopers ever assembled to jump into occupied territory in Europe on D-Day and followed them through until the end of the war in Europe.

The exploits of these men, some of whom were still alive at the time the movie was being made, were well chronicled in a book by Stephen Ambrose, which I now vow to read. These men were not only trained to jump out of airplanes, but because they were essentially infantry soldiers, they were schooled in how to conduct a ground war as well. They had to carry everything with them that they would need, some extra 100 pounds of gear when they left the airplane. According to the facts, more than 1,000 lost their lives on D-Day due to planes being shot down, or the paratroopers being killed as they descended, and that wasn’t even the worst of it.

As they trudged through Europe, they were often without food, almost always without shelter, and often without enough ammunition to effectively fight the Germans who were everywhere. Then, as now, they were not supplied with the right gear. They had no long underwear for the winter months, even though by winter, the Allied forces had been in the region for several months. Watching the re-creation of the siege at Bastonge made me shiver. The Germans surrounded the town and the only way supplies could reach the soldiers was via air drops, but the weather was so bad, planes could not fly. Somehow the soldiers held the position against overwhelming odds.

Watching this, I wondered how ordinary people find the resolve to accomplish these things. Nothing in anyone’s life prepares them for this, yet time after time, war after war, men find the courage to follow orders and defend a piece of land from a force defined as the enemy. It can’t all be testosterone. Nor can it all be patriotism. I can’t help but wonder if we all have it in us. I’d like to think I would defend the defenseless to the best of my ability rather than throwing my hands in the air in surrender, but I wonder.

My life has been one of relative ease. I have never suffered any intense deprivation. My parents didn’t abuse me. I always had more than enough to eat, a comfortable bed, and a temperature controlled environment. This cannot be said of those in war torn countries. How does a child develop when the very buildings around them are being blown up and they can’t go to school because it is too dangerous? Why is it that some group or another is always eagerly willing to sacrifice generations of life in pursuit of some cause they find just? I just can’t wrap my mind around it, but I am ever grateful to those who are willing to sacrifice themselves for my freedom and willing to try and save future generations from those that would deny them a chance to develop.

I bow before those who have fought and died in the name of democracy and to those who soldier on this very day in Iraq and Afghanistan so those people might taste the freedoms most of us generally take for granted.

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