Allow me to tell this story of
one of The Greatest Generation who didn't fall in battle ...
because many, many of his buddies did. And we cannot recall the war
dead without considering their comrades-in-arms.
.
"I've
never been so scared in my whole life," he told me. "I thought I was
gonna wet my pants. Some guys did, but we all got wet when we got out of
the landing craft, so it didn't matter. The bullets sounded like
mosquitos, except worse than you could imagine. Guys were getting
chopped to pieces. Sometimes you couldn't even recognize 'em after they
got hit."
Later,
he participated in the Battle of the Bulge. "Every couple of hours,
there'd be another rumor coming down the line that the Nazis had broken
through, or that they'd infiltrated this unit or that one, or that we
were cut off from the rest of the guys. I just kept picking up wounded
guys, and driving 'em back to where they needed to go. If a Kraut wanted
to shoot me, he was welcome to try. Whenever I was scared, I'd just
drive a little faster," he said.
.
Charlie was
an inspiration to me: just a normal guy who emigrated to the States as a
boy, from Malta. He never finished high school, but when he got called
by Uncle Sam, he went. He had a job to do, and he did it. No crying, no
fuss; he just got the job done, and came back home.
.
"I was lucky," he said. "A lot of guys didn't make it back." But Charlie did.
.
He
came back and married his best girl, Marcella, right after the war.
Charlie did factory work, until he retired. Marcella was a grade school
cook. For all that they had little education, they provided for a son
who literally became a rocket scientist, and was working at White Sands
when I met him.
.
When they retired, they lived in a
small but tidy double-wide, in a subdivision out in the country. Charlie
spent a lot of time, sitting on the front porch, waving at the cars as
people drove past. He always had a kind word for anyone who'd stop to
talk.
.
We lived across the street from Charlie
and Marcella for over 10 years. Every day after work, I'd head over
& have a long talk with him. Marcella would join us eight times out
of ten. He always had a funny story to tell. The few times that he
mentioned the war, he'd start to shake, even after all those years.
.
We
moved away, more than a decade ago. My in-laws would mention him, from
time to time, as they had mutual friends. I always wanted to go back and
see him, but there never seemed to be time to travel all that way. Then
we moved to Alaska, and that was the end of that.
.
Charlie
passed away, a few years ago. Marcella lives in a senior community now.
.
Rest in peace, Charlie. I'm richer for having known you.
2 comments:
Thanks for this post Rev.
Thank YOU for reading about Charlie. He'd have had tears in his eyes thinking that someone would take the time to read about him.
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