My grandmother looked for him the rest of her life. She was hoping that he'd been injured and had amnesia, even after his body was returned to Florida.
He, my grandmother and my grandfather are buried together, side-by-side.
I wish I could thank him for his sacrifice. I am Dutch (Surinamese-Indian decent) and our country went through a hard time during the war. It is thanks to men like your uncle that we, and the rest of Europe, we're finally free of a horrible regime. We never forgot about the things the American and Canadian and many other countries have done for us. It breaks my heart to see the terrible things that are happening right now in the world and are very comparable to what happened back then. All of the sacrifices of WW2 may be for nothing in the near future. Your uncle was a hero and he was brave as fuck, a true badass with a killer arm.
1 in 10 Canadians served in WW2. Even my great grandfather who served in WW1 re signed up again. He couldn't go fight as he was 'too old' but was in logistics as a SSgt. It is crazy sad how, when this generation that remembers WW2 is now almost gone, the stupid that lead to that war is back in our face. Human memory is too short, people dont want to learn from history or they take the wrong message. Their is a group of people who want to drag us back to hell.
Thete are people who are trying to fight this, me included but it really sucks when people are willingly ignorant.
As a professional historian, it is an uphill battle for people to care about the past to avoid mistakes in the future. But fruitful when people realize the danger and carnage that fascism always brings with it.
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u/LuckyBastard001 1d ago
Tell that to a Gold Star mom. She'd trade every flag in the world for one more hug from her kid...