It was something to ponder as friends and family brushed up on lessons learned along the way and, "Where do I put the socks?" Someone asked a telephone receiver. "I CAN'T SEE THE LUGGAGE SON." The younger man looked at the phone and recalled that he was on a phone. After the father and son hung up he'd not wanted to let go of the phone. "We feel close to home when we hear their voices," a just slightly older officer explained.
"Ready for the tour son?" The young man shoved the socks into a suitcase pocket; shut it, then opened it and put the socks in the other fold. The slightly older stepped to the back of the man's head and peered at the point of indecision. After the bag was zipped up again he said, "I would have put them in the other pocket." Hands paused on unzippering. "No do overs in war son. We'll get 'em next time."
The book Iwo Jima starts out with a quote from a Rabbi Chaplain's eulogy of 14 MARCH 1945.
"Here lie officers and men, Negroes and whites, rich men and poor--together. Here are Protestants, Catholics, and Jews--together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color....No prejudices. No hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest democracy." --Chaplain Roland B. Gittelsohn
He's also quoted over at https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/gittelsohn-iwo-jima-eulogy.
As we struggle with how to think of ourselves let us not forget to consider the meaning in our chosen words.
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