An American Hero

I neglected to mention yesterday that we had our soup supper in the home of a true war hero. He and his wife live across the street from us and hosted the supper. He was in the Navy in WWII and was on a carrier that was sunk in the Pacific by a Kamikaze pilot. He was blown into the water about 50 feet from the ship. He was virtually naked and spent 3 hours in the water until a destroyer picked him and several others out of the water. The ship he was on sank. He said he was paddling frantically away from the ship so as to not be sucked under when the ship went down. He was taken to Guam where he spent 2 weeks until, small group by small group, he and his comrades were flown back to the US on survivor’s leave. He later returned to the war and then served 22 months in the Korean conflict. He is a Cajun and we talked about the new restaurant that will open near here soon serving both Cajun and Greek food. What a combination. Bill Williams went to DC this past spring to visit the WWII memorial with many other veterans. This is one great thing our government is doing: it is offering to fly the remaining veterans there to see the memorial. Bob and Liddy Dole meet and greet each arriving flight. At least some have reverence for the “greatest generation” who have insured much of the freedom that we are now having stolen from us by those who don’t.