Shedding a Tear or Two

Last night I watched a 10 year old movie that I shouldn’t have watch. I had seen it several times before and I would get very emotionally distraught each time that I viewed it in the past. Last night was no different.

But it’s a great movie that was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won 5 including best Director (Steven Spielberg), so I put myself through the agony once again.

Saving Private Ryan was a very well crafted, well written, and well acted movie. Spielberg directed films tend to bring out the deepest emotions of the viewer. Many of his films do not have happy endings.

The first time I got emotional while watching a movie was when I was 10 years old and watching John Wayne as Sgt. Stryker in the Sands of Iwo Jima. This was also the first time I ever saw my Dad get choked up and shed a tear.

My Dad was a WWII vet stationed in the European Theater during D-Day. He saw very little combat (he was rear echelon) but he did see a lot of dead US Soldiers. He went into Normandy 4 days after (June 10, 1944) the initial assault on Omaha Beach.

Dad didn’t really enjoy talking about the War, but he once recollected seeing very many dead bodies of Americans (as well as Germans) still on the beach where he landed (most of the GI’s were buried at the Normandy American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach). By this time the front lines were well inland.

Dad had an album of Black and White photographs that he had taken, showing the destructiveness and carnage of war. He told me to remember them well and that some day it might be my turn to serve my country. Ten years later it was and I did.

Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day. I’ll be thinking of my Dad, of friends that I served with in the Military and of the countless military personnel that never lived to see another Veteran’s Day. I’ll say a prayer for those currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I’ll shed a tear or two, as I did late last night while I watched Saving Private Ryan.

The Beach Bum

Merry Christmas

This post is dedicated to all who serve in the military and cannot be home for Christmas.

John Lennon was a gifted dreamer who wrote some magnificent lyrics.
To quote John Lennon from the song "Imagine" -
"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one."

From the Shaved Fish album (1972) by John Lennon/Yoko Ono

Sing along if you remember the words.

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over
If you want it
War is over

If you don't shed a tear while viewing the following You Tube video, I feel sorry for you!

View Happy Christmas on You Tube
Happy Christmas (War is Over)

The Beach Bum

Pearl Harbor Day Salute

This morning I received an email from an old Army buddy who lives in New Hampshire. It was titled Pearl Harbor Day. Here are parts of that email:

“My Dad as most of you know was at Pearl Harbor when it got bombed by the Japs.US Army Combat Engineers stationed at Schofield Barracks.”

“He was on the roof of Schofield shooting anti-aircraft guns when a bomb went through the roof within 10 feet of him, went straight through everything and ended up stuck in the ground and never blew up. I wouldn't be saying this if it had. That bomb is still in the ground today as a memorial. After Pearl he went to save the Marines at Guadalcanal. Fun times. Great nightmares. Dad will be 87 next month and is in great health.”

My friend goes on to say that it would make his father happy if we sent him an email or gave him a call. So I’m going one better and dedicating today’s Blog to those who (alive or dead) were at the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.

There aren’t too many survivors still around to tell us about “a date which will live in infamy”. In my lifetime I have only met two survivors and know of three (I have never met my friend’s father). The two that I met have both passed away, but I remember their stories of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor vividly.

They spoke of the carnage (2,333 killed and 1,139 wounded), the individual heroism of others in their units, and the effect that it had on their lives. They were young and hadn’t ever seen combat. They were not fully prepared for the events of that day. They had both lost friends and knew that this event would put us at war with Japan where they would lose more friends.


The USS Arizona took on the most personnel loses in the attack on Pearl Harbor and now stands as a memorial to all that had died (all military services – not only Navy) in combat on December 7, 1941. Every President subsequent to FDR has visited the Memorial.

Today I stand up and solemnly salute all that served at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 with a special salute to my friend’s father Bill Hallahan, a survivor. President John F. Kennedy once said “The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.”

The Beach Bum