ouwasp
12/8/2010, 12:18 AM
About 10 yrs ago I had a big load of baptismal laundry to do for my church, so I took it to the laundromat. There was only one car parked out front, and I noticed at a glance it had a Florida Purple Heart tag.
I carried the load in, got it started. There was an old man folding clothes at a table. Went over to him.
"Sir, is that your your car with the purple heart tag?"
"Yeah" He kept on folding. He was old enough I knew he was a WWII vet.
"What unit were you with?" Now he looked up at me, and I saw his hat had a paratrooper emblem on it. My eyes were getting big as he proudly said "101st Airborne"
"Wow... you saw a lot of action" (I know my WWII history)
Now he warmed up to the subject. "Yeah, I jumped into France on D-Day. Saw a lot of fighting... did some myself" <grin> He touched his left forearm. "Got this in Belgium" A puckered scar. We talked a little more and I told him I appreciated what he'd done for our country. He shrugged "Aw, that's all water over the dam now..."
Then came the bombshell. I chuckled and asked "What got you to decide to go into a unit that jumped out of airplanes behind enemy lines?"
"Well. I was in Hawaii when the war started..."
"YOU WERE AT PEARL HARBOR?!" What are the odds of meeting a man that participated in D-Day and Pearl Harbor?
He went on to relate how he was an Army cook at Schofield Barracks (so he wasn't really at Pearl, but still) when they attacked "What a mess". A couple months later he heard of an all-volunteer special unit that was being put together...
Man, I wish I had a camera with me. My mind was so blown that I didn't think to ask him over for dinner, I've regretted that ever since. The man was walking history...
I think about him every December 7th. And June 6th. And November 11...
I carried the load in, got it started. There was an old man folding clothes at a table. Went over to him.
"Sir, is that your your car with the purple heart tag?"
"Yeah" He kept on folding. He was old enough I knew he was a WWII vet.
"What unit were you with?" Now he looked up at me, and I saw his hat had a paratrooper emblem on it. My eyes were getting big as he proudly said "101st Airborne"
"Wow... you saw a lot of action" (I know my WWII history)
Now he warmed up to the subject. "Yeah, I jumped into France on D-Day. Saw a lot of fighting... did some myself" <grin> He touched his left forearm. "Got this in Belgium" A puckered scar. We talked a little more and I told him I appreciated what he'd done for our country. He shrugged "Aw, that's all water over the dam now..."
Then came the bombshell. I chuckled and asked "What got you to decide to go into a unit that jumped out of airplanes behind enemy lines?"
"Well. I was in Hawaii when the war started..."
"YOU WERE AT PEARL HARBOR?!" What are the odds of meeting a man that participated in D-Day and Pearl Harbor?
He went on to relate how he was an Army cook at Schofield Barracks (so he wasn't really at Pearl, but still) when they attacked "What a mess". A couple months later he heard of an all-volunteer special unit that was being put together...
Man, I wish I had a camera with me. My mind was so blown that I didn't think to ask him over for dinner, I've regretted that ever since. The man was walking history...
I think about him every December 7th. And June 6th. And November 11...