November Eleventh

November 11th is a day to so many that means to get on parade and then after go and get a free beer, and what not, and get into a lot of stories. To me it’s different. I go on parade. I go home. I generally sit there and to me, I meditate. I think. I’m just so thankful that I am here. I felt many a times, why was I saved, and I left the others? I left twenty nine of us, I realize now I’m the only one left. We left twenty some over there that didn’t make it. They didn’t make Dieppe, they didn’t make the rest. And one of the fellows that I’ll always remember was my friend, Oscar Albrecht, Olly, because I was with Olly when he met the young lady in England that he was supposed to marry. I was supposed to be his best man. He never made it from the Falaise Gap. I spent many hours with the bride to be after, talking to her and making her realize that she had to go on in life. That she could not sit down in sorrow. That the living must go on. And these are the things that go through my mind. The fellows that I trained with, the fellows that I instructed and worked with and some of my buddies that were in the Intelligence with me. I wonder where they are. What they’re doing. That is my theme for November 11th.