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| Lou Conter's ship, the USS Arizona, in happier days |
As usual, there is a fine write up over at The American Catholic, where I first saw the solemn news.
It was WW2 that introduced me to history. And Pearl Harbor became a point of interest for me like few other events in history.
I don't know, I guess I'm someone who likes the biggest and best. The definers and the milestones. Consider what I like: Citizen Kane and Star Wars for movies, The Lord of the Rings among my favorite novels, The Beatles and Frank Sinatra and Mozart for my musical tastes. I'm not saying that's all I like, but clearly I gravitate toward those who transcend being merely good at their craft.
The same for history. Part of what fascinated me about the Jesus story as an agnostic was the Crucifixion. I remember watching an old show introduced by David L Wolper titled Appointment with Destiny: The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. That struck me at how the world changed forever because of what wasn't worth paying attention to in the halls of Roman power that year.
Likewise Hastings, the Titanic, and Pearl Harbor also figure high in my interest level. Perhaps due to proximity to my lifetime, Pearl Harbor especially struck me as a thick dividing line between the before and the after. The world, at war though it was, on December 6th, compared to the world ever since beginning on December 8th.
Because of that, I've read many, many, many books and articles over the years. I've watched interviews and documentaries galore. And within the broader attack, the ill-fated USS Arizona more than anything captured my imagination. I don't know why.
Years ago I missed the chance to meet an Arizona survivor. My family went to the Dublin Irish Festival for the first time. It was summer of 2001. In the 'Genealogy' tent, there was an old codger walking about with a cane. He had one of those veteran caps on. But standing behind him I couldn't see what it said. I pushed my way through the crowd to get in front of him to see. And then I saw it: WW2. US Navy. USS Arizona.
My jaw dropped and I froze. I wasn't sure what to say. How does one say anything in that situation? I could kick myself in later years, but at the time I remained silent. I wonder if it was Mr. Conter.
Whether him or likely not, we mourn his passing and the virtues and best values that his era brought to the world. A world in desperate need of the best they had to offer. Hopefully his was a life of peace, and he will now indulge in that peace and joy of a better life than this one.
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| The USS Arizona meets its end; how Lou Conter spent his morning on that sunny Sunday |
We lost the last WW1 survivor several years ago. In a decade or so, we will lose the last survivor of Auschwitz and the other Nazi death camps.
ReplyDeleteIt is the loss of the living memory and the wisdom that comes from experience that most fundamentally refutes "progress".
Yes. Losing those who were there must happen, but that is why remembering the past and not attacking it is the smarter move. A society that erases its own history is a society cutting off the branch it is sitting on.
DeleteMay God rest his soul.
ReplyDeleteA decade plus ago I met an Anzio veteran who is almost certainly gone now. I thanked him for what he'd done, and he seemed a bit flabbergasted that someone my age (!) knew about it. But he was grateful.
My middle son and I are going through "Band of Brothers." My way of passing the torch on down from my grandpa, who was a bomber mechanic (and a good one!) in WW2.
Thanks to all of them. May we prove worthy to the task of setting aright their legacy to us: America herself.
In 1995, I was in my last year of graduate school. I had just spent a few months at Risø National Lab in Denmark, and I took the opportunity to see a bit of Germany. I was alone on a train platform at one point when an old man came up. "You are an American?" he asked. I told him I was. "Thank you!" he exclaimed, to my great surprise.
DeleteBut I know he was not thanking me. He was thanking my great uncle, who might well have passed near that same spot in early 1945.
We've watched that with our sons - when age appropriate. As I've said, there were several family members in that war and others. I did run into a WW2 vet in a Wendy's a few years after my experience with the Arizona survivor. His cap said WW2, 101st AB. I stopped and thanked him and said we had watched the series. He said he wasn't in E-Company, but he knew them. Apparently Dick Winters had some young relative - grandson, great nephew or something, and he actually attended a school function when my boys were still in school.
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