Below is Lt. Col.(R) Lonnie D. McCurry and his better half. Uncle Lonnie is the Marine whose battles I'm covering in "Blood Is Thicker Than Water" series.
What I'd like to do is run the timelines of both the 4/12 Marines, 3rd Marine Division that Uncle Lonnie belonged to along with 2/1 Marines, 1st Marine Division (Aaron's Bn.) during the battles Uncle Lonnie fought and those Aaron fought. Aaron's unit was at Guadalcanal when 4/12 was at Bougainville. I think I've covered Bougainville about as well as I can right now. I apologize for copying and pasting so much material in rather than forming my own report or narrative, but there is just so much to cover. It'd be like a term paper for each battle, so I figure for those of you who are really interested, I'd just gather information from the experts instead of giving you my limited take on world events.
However, the personal stories, I can do something with that. That is something I can set my hand to and bring to life, so Uncle Lonnie or Aunt Arlene, if there's something like that you don't mind sharing with our readers, I would love you to email or snail mail them to me. Poignant, fearful, funny, dangerous, personal thoughts ... anything you don't mind sharing, and if you do mind, then I understand and respect that as well. I know many don't talk much about their war experiences, but still, so many of us want those personal moments. Facts will always be here, but experience is the pearl. I want to capture that, for that is the true beauty and life long sorrow of war.
My deepest respect for those who've experienced both. I can't imagine that anyone wouldn't be touched in some way by war. Just to be on alert is wearing on both the troops and their families. War, well, mine in Panama doesn't even touch those of WWII, Vietnam, and those since. Even then, it's lonely at Christmas, and Uncle Lonnie was overseas for two years before returning to the states.
Please remember our troops and veterans this time of year.
1 comment:
It's important to get these stories. It's reported that 1,000 World War II vets die each day. We can't put off getting their experiences recorded. I like what you're doing.
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