War doesn’t follow a Hollywood script
To the editor:
On Memorial Day my thoughts go back to when my Father would tell me about World War II and how he left his young wife, my mother, and went off to the Pacific to protect her and our country. My father carried mortar shrapnel in his chest and dreadful memories of fighting the Japanese on the islands of the Pacific. I could tell from his face that, like many combat veterans, his day of Remembrance was not just once every year.
As a young boy, I envisioned his stories through the eyes of a child with Hollywood movie versions of war for experience. Later I would begin to realize the true terror of battle and the sacrifices my father and our soldiers make for us. Above the jungles of Vietnam as a helicopter door gunner I began to truly share my father’s experiences of nearly three decades before. The sights, sounds and smells of war do not have the glamour of Hollywood movies.
War is an ugly, painful reminder of the fear and distrust in the hearts of men. The memory of war in our veterans is a constant incentive for us all to strive for peace.
Jim Roach
Cape Coral