I am always astounded to read articles on The Free Press that I don't think I would ordinarily choose to read and then come away glad that I have read them. I found this very moving, especially the ending, and I thank the author for sharing this.
I couldn’t have said it better so I’ll just say you’ve perfectly captured my thoughts and emotions. I think of my dad, Jose, who emigrated from Cuba at a young age, joined the army and was in during the Korean War. Thankfully, he survived and these stories help me to appreciate his journey so much more.
Thank him for his service for us all, if you still can. When my wife was sworn in as a citizen some 20 years ago, there was a young man from Cuba getting his citizenship, as well as a Marine from Mexico. I was honored to be in the same room as those willing to forgo ancestral homeland and be willing to risk life and limb to gain what I was born with.
I also read it as an afterthought. Now tears are streaming down my face! Like Emilio, my father went to WWII aged 19 (to North Africa in the South African Engineering Corps). Unlike Emilio, he was unharmed and had many adventures - what is known as “a good war”.
I was born in Caen, Normandy and raised in a village a few kilometers north. Like all kids going to school in this region, I was taught extensively about World War II since this war left a lot of scars here (Caen was destroyed at 85% By allied bombing on D-Day and even today, non detonated munitions are regularly unearthed on construction sites, whole areas have to be evacuated for the munitions to be exploded safely by specialized technicians).
I visited the Omaha Beach American War Cemetery with my school has a kid, and back then I looked at it only from an intellectual standpoint: "These are the graves of dead American soldiers who fought in Normandy during World War II". And didn't think about it much more.
A few years ago, when I was on a vacation at my parents', I decided to pay a visit to this beautiful place. This time, being in my late twenties, I was able to look at all these white crosses from an emotional standpoint, as I read the birthdates and dates of death on the crosses. Most of these soldiers were 18, 19, 20...
And I realized fully then, that these young men had crossed the Atlantic to fight in France, in order to defend the idea they had of Freedom, in a foreign land far from home. Some survived a few weeks, some were barely able to advance a few meters on the beach, but all contributed to the Allies victory and the liberation of Europe.
I was almost crying, while considering their courageous sacrifice, not being sure I would have done the same, especially for a foreign country.
So, as someone who today is able to speak French instead of German, I would like to say to these men :
Let us not forget our debt to the French during the American Revolution or the Marquis de Lafayette who was knocking on General Washington's door at the tender age of nineteen to fight the British. He wintered with Washington at Valley Forge, and worked tirelessly to gain French financial and military support for the revolution. He was an American hero and by estimates, over a hundred American towns and cities are named after him.
The story of the surrender of Cornwallis's British army at Yorktown is what I always thought a good counter to anti-French sentiment. On the day of the formal surrender, the American and French commanders and their staffs awaited the arrival of the British on a hill overlooking the town, but when the British delegation arrived, Cornwallis was not present as he had feigned illness to avoid the embarrassment of surrendering to Washington. So, he delegated the dishonor to a staff officer who tried to present his sword to the Comte de Rochambeau Commander of the French forces aiding the Americans. The British officer, ignoring General Washington, offered his word to Rochambeau who refused to accept it and instead pointed to Washington. But Washington, aware of the intended snub, also refused to accept the sword of the junior staff officer and, in turn, pointed to his own subordinate, General Lincoln who had been an exchanged British prisoner after the Battle of Charleston. It was a ceremony of dishonor for the British and an honorable response from the French.
I read, on the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day many US D-Day vets were going to visit the battle ground. The French in Normandy opened their homes to these vets as free bed and breakfasts.
We bombed the living daylights out of the Normandy beach area killing an unknown amount of French citizens and turning many towns into rubble. Yet in Normandy they are still grateful for us liberating them. They hated the Germans so much and it cost them so much yet they welcomed the invading GI as liberators.
I was a youngish Marine at the time of the 50th anniversary of D-Day and was among the troops sent there to support the ceremonies. We also had time to visit the American Cemetery, the beaches, museums and various battle sites as well as interact with the civilian populace. Around this same period I also visited some bigger French cities outside of Normandy (Paris, Marseilles, Cherbourg, etc). I and many of my fellow Marines had numerous instances in places like these where French citizens treated us rudely when they found out we were Americans. I was very much struck by the difference in Normandy, where the war and its memory was still very much present, and every last citizen we met, was very appreciative and cordial to all of us, all the veterans and current service personnel as well, and it was clearly a normal thing, not some thing just put on for the event. It would’ve been very touching on its own, but then, on seeing the contrast with the more metropolitan French areas, who also tend to look down on Normandy as provincials, it really highlighted deep impression that it will make on people, even if collateral damage must happen, when they see what sacrifices strangers made to set them free.
I am so moved by the programs in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg to adopt the American soldier’s graves from both WWI and WWII so their sacrifice is never forgotten. https://www.legion.org/landingzone/222358/promise-kept
Dans les années 80, j’ai visitée La Cimetiere American en Normandie, et également celle du Canada à Courseulles sur Mer (pour la plage Juno). C’était très émotionnel. Quelle horreur que la jeunesse d’aujourd’hui aux États-Unis feront jamais cette espèce de sacrifice ni pour leur pays, ni pour la notion de la liberté. Vraiment, c’est tragique.
Thank you. I visited the War Cemetery and walked on Omaha Beach at Arromanches-sur-Mer just a few weeks ago. The experience was very moving. I share and appreciate your feeling of gratitude for the the Allies who fought in Normandy.
A wonderful story to honor the fallen this Veteran’s Day. It’s a reminder that immigration and assimilation is an integral part of the American ethos. The Barbosas were proud to be Americans. I am dismayed that I can’t say the same for many younger folks these days that hate the greatest nation on Earth.
I’m a Vietnam veteran. I am very fortunate to have returned from my tour there. Too many of my brothers in my rifle company arms did not. I think about my experience and those young men every day. My tour in Vietnam, and time in the army is the most transformative period of my life. I visited the American cemetery at Omaha Beach and walked among the various grave markers. I found a number of markers of young men who were killed at Normandy, who were in the same unit that I was in Vietnam.
As I said a prayer at the graves, it brought tears to my eyes, thinking about what these young men would’ve done with their lives. They made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat evil.
I do not see the same commitment from our fellow Americans. We take what we have for granted, and many in our society, think that our country is evil. I fear that we are losing the values and traditions that made us a great country, but we are in decline and America is breaking apart. I pray I’m wrong.
I was a teenager in SF during Vietnam. I remember the atrocious attitude people around me had toward young men sent off to some jungle. I remember how the media, Cronkite, chose to characterize the war in the worst possible light. Were there no heroes? Dirty hippies lying around, smoking dope in Golden Gate Park had the moral high ground here? I didn’t understand. My father served in the Pacific, everyone was a hero then. Eventually there was a collective guilty conscience for how our Vietnam vets were treated. It was a national shame. Those hippies should have polished your boots. I hope you can forgive so many Americans for mistreating you. Thank you for your service.
So easy to forget Hollywood lauding Jane Fonda as she betrayed our troops. Imagine spitting on kids whose were serving their country, many of whom were drafted. These are the same people who have such unhinged moral compasses that they worship Hamas as "freedom fighters."
When I returned home from Vietnam, in 1972 we landed at Travis Air Force Base east of San Francisco west of Sacramento. Before we deplaned, we were advised to remove our uniforms as we stepped into civilian life. Military uniforms in 1972 were a target for abuse verbal And otherwise. I’ve been home long time, I’m 74 years old. And out this morning and offering my daily prayers and expressed gratitude for the opportunity. I had to serve my country when called upon. I was not a Warhawk, but I knew what duty was , and when I was called I served.
I was in a US Army recruiters office on my 17th birthday (in Jan.1973). I was told I had to wait until I was 18 to join. Even at that young age I was astounded that so many supposedly "peaceful" young people who chose a free-spirited, drug-filled, debaucherous lifestyles could somehow consider themselves paragons of virtue and rail against soldiers and society in general.
I'm definitely no Saint but I'm glad I was finally able to serve and to this day I'm proud to consider myself a brother to all others who had done the same.
You are right...everyone was a hero then. This story reminds me a little bit of my grandfather who was a marine and fought at Iwo Jima. He was in the 2nd wave. I am always so proud to talk about him. My great-grandparents immigrated from Sicily in the early 1900's. Like most, they went through Ellis Island and settled in NYC. My grandfather was born in NYC. He joined the marines at 17 or 18 then was sent to the Pacific. My dad has said that my grandfather never talked about what he experienced. When he and his brothers would ask him to tell them stories, his only response would be, "I sure wish I could have had a nice cup of cold water." My dad said they learned early on never to wake him from sleep because he would jump up ready to fight. There is no telling what he experienced and I think of him every single time I sing the National Anthem. Thank you to my Papa Joe.
Our son and daughter are young adults and we have always made sure they knew about their great-grandfather. Also, my FIL was in the navy on a destroyer during the Korean War. We have made sure our kids are patriots.
My dad joined the Navy in preference to being drafted wherever the government chose ("I would rather ride than walk," he said), and he spent the war in the South Pacific. He was a medic (Pharmacist's Mate in Navy parlance), and spent quite a while at the field hospital on Guadalcanal. On one occasion, he was nearly hit by a Japanese plane strafing the area: "If not for the anti-aircraft gunner, I wouldn't be here now."
That was one of the few things he had to say about his time in the service, even though I, as a curious child, asked questions whenever something reminded me of WWII. Most of what I know about his heroic efforts I learned from a book written by the captain of the LCS 86, where he spent the second half of the war. With only the mess room for a surgery and the cook as an assistant, he saved the lives and limbs of so many men rescued from the U.S.S. Braine (hit by a kamikaze during the Battle of Okinawa) that a hospital ship commander came personally to commend him.
He was 26 when he joined up--an "old man" among boys of 18.
They really didn't like to talk much about it at all. Just a few vignettes from which we could piece things together. And we can all only guess at what they saw and felt. And how so many of them carried the internal scars. My Dad wasn't the easiest man to either my Mom or us. In time we came to understand, forgive and learn to honor him.
I have told this story before. When I visited the D-Day cemetery, there was an old woman sitting on her walker that had a seat on it. I asked her how she liked the tour we were on. She said mournfully, "All these young men, their young lives taken, all that lost potential."
I said, "No, they gave their greatest potential here on this beach. Without them we wouldn't be speaking English today. Europe and the world was saved because of them."
I have said this before and had Democrats scoff, saying, "Speaking English today? Really?"
Possession of objectivity is a Class A felony these days. There is an entire industry in place to criminalize and prevent it. The MSM's Brian Stelter sat by and gloated as criminal fascist Schwab/Davos billionaires proclaimed that the American right to free speech was over. The D.C./DNC? Crickets. Doesn't (if you believe Taibbi- and I do) the assault on free speech tell us everything we need to know?
I'm wondering, if conjecture that the Republican Party actually isn't interested in mounting effective political opposition to the obvious CCP style fascist corporatist dystopia the DNC is building, doesn't hold at least some truth. Their entire Republican platform seems to be MIA.
I have no idea how large or small the chances of the Ramaswamy candidacy might be. But, he is (in my view) trying to have the right conversation. The American Revolution of 1776 is the core reality that informs the fact of the lives we are living. The Revolution is not, nor will it ever be, over. Most of the fascist corporatist/"woke" psyop is aimed at the distortion of that reality. Their goal is the imposition of a kind of national insane asylum amnesia where CITIZENS become criminalized THINGS and forget who they are.
If today we are remembering those who died in battle, let us also remember why.
Thank you for your service. My father was an older Vietnam veteran. He was OCS in the Air Force in 1951 and retired in 1973. When he went in, a man in uniform could not pay for his own cup of coffee. Someone would always insist on buying it for him. When he retired, he was a war, criminal and baby killer. He crawled inside a bottle and never came out.
I was a trader at the Chicago Board of trade, and our office had a magnificent view north down LaSalle Street. I cannot remember the year, but Chicago finally had a decades, long delayed parade for its Vietnam vets. It was at least a mile long coming down LaSalle Street and thousands turned out to cheer. it was led by a man whose legs had been blown off and who walked on his hands. Moving Beyond words. Validation and closure at last for many, yet too late for so many more.
There is a story behind every man and woman who died in service of their country. Thank you for researching and telling the story of one of the many, Emilio RIP.
If Emilio were alive today he would be heartbroken to see what kids these days think of America. When they turn our beautiful country into a tyrannical dictatorship like the one the Barbosas escaped maybe they'll appreciate it then. Make America Cool Again.
“If Emilio were alive today he would be heartbroken”
And not just for the reason you cite. Having witnessed the unimaginable horrors of war, I suspect that witnessing the empty sloganeering of mealy mouthed politicians and generals determined wage perpetual war, wars that the sons and daughter descended from Emilio might have to fight, would be far more heart wrenching.
On this Veterans Day, please give praise to all those so who so selflessly fought and died for a country they believed in. Please give help and hope to all those who’s fought, returned home, and remain broken from the horrors they witnessed. And please hold accountable all those so willing to waste their lives, and future lives in places the rest of us don’t know and for reasons they want us to forget.
I wonder if America faced the same dilemma as in the early 194O’s, how many young Emilio’s would answer the call? I wonder if many really know what it means to be an American?
I'm one of them, ADAB—assigned democrat at birth—I dove in aiding and abetting my kids to believe conservatives were moronic racist nerds, that america was a land to disdain, took my daughter to her first pride parade and to our local BLM march etc and so forth. i woke the fuck up just a couple years ago when my daughter decided she was a gay man and the school changed her name and pronouns behind my back. Now my son thinks i'm a homophobe and my husband and i are at odds like never before. the strain at times is excruciating but i am still so thankful to have finally seen the light.
Mrs Miller I'm sorry what you just be dealing with your daughter and son. I hope things work out for you but I think they will. The fact you and your husband are in this together makes it better. Don't let them ruin your kids. Thanks for sharing your story!
Me too. My story is a little different as I am not American. You and I are one of the many that the left has betrayed with its nonsense about gender, race and so many other issues. Keep strong……you are not alone!
If only it were that easy, and solved the problem. If I were to pull my kid out of school, especially now when she is about to graduate, she would likely never forgive me, my husband would vehemently disagree with the decision and we would eventually divorce. The internet also does not go away, nor the adolescent urge to defy authority, which would result in her digging in deeper. In a nutshell, things would get worse, not better. So I appreciate your sympathetic edit. As it is, I believe my daughter has desisted, even though she would never admit it. She's a senior and practically out of there, headed for a college that is nowhere near ivy league status. One day she will thank me.
My comment was to other parents and grandparents out there with children just starting out. I wish you the best. It must be so hard not having your partner by your side....
Don't take her out school as a senior, at that point it's too late. I think Marcia's message is for parents with younger kids. As with you son, I've dealt with depression and anxiety my entire life. It came to a climax in 2018 when I almost had a nervous breakdown and the depression made me a hermit. My family had to interject and I listened and sought help. Just keep on your son in a positive way and tell him to get off the weed. Marijuana can cause a lot of anxiety/paranoia.
My mother always fought like a tiger against all the stupid teenage decisions I wanted to make. Later, when I grew up, we became the best friends. I thank God that she cared enough to fight for my best interests, no matter how hard I fought against it. I know I didn’t make it easy for her, but she loved me enough not to let me screw up.
I hope, in the future, that your story will play out in a similar manner.
As one of those you dismissed in your previous incantation as a moronic racist conservative be advised that I am unconvinced of your awakening and also unforgiving.
Lynne, this is one of the rare occasions I must disagree with you. When I think of how many wrongful and stupid things I've done in my own life, and how much I've been forgiven, it's easier to forgive others their own mistakes. Mrs. Miller is hurting from hers, and all the more so because the pain is within her family. You might not be "convinced" of her change of heart, but having developed such respect for you from your wise posts, I can't help but think you'll have one too.
I understand grateful1. I hope I am capable of changes of heart because otherwise that means mine has hardened. I try to avoid that. I also stand by the comment. I do not think she comprehends the harm she caused others while she was in the throes of her allegedly prior belief system, much less is sorry therefor. Rather she is sorry for the harm she caused hers.
Help me comprehend "the harm I caused others." You're clearly hurting, but I can't see how your pain is my responsibility. The thing I love most about leaving the left and realizing I already held conservative values is the concept of personal accountability. That's one value I have worked to instill in my kids and that will hopefully save them from being truly harmed by the ideology they embrace. you're pretty much the only person who has been an asshole to me about my former party affiliation. Most people find my change of heart hopeful and reassuring. One thing you can count on is that my shift is not "alleged." Not that I have anything to prove to you, but just putting it out there. We're on the same side. Infighting is ridiculous.
Thanks for replying, Lynne. I appreciate your take. I do think Mrs. Miller has a lot to absorb, since her world seems to have been turned upside down and inside out.
This is one of the places that the veil separating evolution and religion is especially thin and illusory. We evolved to be good at survival under adverse outside circumstances. Spiritual values embody that progress.
Now that we've conquered most of our adverse outside circumstances, the consequences for disregarding spiritual teachings are mostly gone.
Have we gone as far as we can?
Carl Sagan theorized that the main reason we haven't been contacted by aliens is that it's too difficult for civilizations to evolve past the hand-to-mouth stage without destroying themselves.
G-d predicted that we would fuck it all up, and the Messiah is going to make us start over.
But to be fair Jacinto, I'm 49 and I'm seeing my peers raise their kids also in a detrimental way. I won't even get into how mothers are trying to live their lives through their teen daughters (sickening) while the sons become men who are depressed and want to do nothing in life. It's truly sad.
It's ok, I didn't take it as condescending. My parents came from Italy so we grew up in a somewhat conservative, Roman Catholic household :). So I am thankful for my upbringing.
Thank you Mr Nocera. I walk my dog to Bennett park every morning for the last seven years and still don’t recall seeing a plaque. I will make sure to find it and pay homage. And thank you so much for reminding us all of sacrifice.
Left out are those who have served in "peacetime" and have lost their lives in training and while executing tasks associated with maintaining equipment often under hazardous conditions. Any person who has committed to service in the armed forces essentially writes a blank check to the Republic tacitly acknowledging it is redeemable up to but also including their life. If you're serving or if a loved one is but not being shot at presently, Thank you.
USN 1969-1975; note the intersection with the Vietnam Era. But I spent most of my hitch "sailing sand," as we called it, at the Naval Reactors prototype facility outside of Idaho Falls and was never anywhere close to combat. Felt squeamish about that until a guy, missing a body part, at a bar, quite forcefully and very indelicately enforced that observation upon me about Signing the Blank Check. With the further observation that we may not be faulted or devalued for good (or bad) luck,
A truly great American story. The contrast with what we have watched the past five weeks in America's streets and campuses is telling. God bless all the Emilios and his brothers who helped protect our precious freedoms.
Yes indeed. Thank God for all the Emilio's! This story was heartwarming in a time when we need more Emilio's. My heart goes out to all who lost their lives defending this still great country. We need more people like Emilio once again.
These sacrifices will be in vain if adherents of a conquest ideology continue to be permitted to enter America. I made this point 20 years ago after I read the Koran. Who couldn’t have predicted there would be a rise in antisemitism with more Muslim immigration? All but the wilfully ignorant knew what would happen. So now we have these people and young ignoramuses protesting Israel’s defense of itself. Six million dead Jews was not enough.
This was a beautifully written article. It makes me think of Lincoln's line from the Gettysburg Address that we should never forget what they did here. It also stirs a line from Bob Dole, who said they gave up their tomorrows so we could have our today.
I loved how Joe Nocera gave the history of the man, his family, and the effects of losing a loved one. I enjoyed reading how he jumped into the war as his brothers did or his love for his country, as it was the one he only knew. In today's race-obsessed world, I am reminded that was not always the case: ethnicity mattered, and the communities within cities that people grew up in grieved as well.
Finally, we need to look at our culture and education system that the less sophisticated eras of the past produced Emilio, whereas today, we have people who cheer Hamas.
I lived in that neighborhood for many years and was in that park about a million times. There is a long staircase that starts from Pinehurst Avenue down to
W. 181st St. which is in the shadow of the massive George Washington Bridge. There's a lot of Washington named stuff up there: Bridge, Heights, Avenue. After reading this, I imagined young Emilio running up and down that staircase bursting with youthful exuberance, rushing to his next ballgame. What has always struck me as amazing was the (I'm going to call it) moral clarity that the WW2 generation seemed to be in possession of. The willingness to drop everything to go and fight Hitler and Hirohito; to take a stand and be willing to put one's ass on the line; to be willing to say "this is wrong", and do something to stop it, including dying is something we can all use more of. There didn't seem to be much moral relatively (who are we to judge, we're just as bad?) going on. I'm not advocating to run off to war every other minute. But sometimes it's okay to judge something as evil. My dad and all of my uncles served in WW2, and one of my uncles was killed in Holland and is buried under one of those white crosses there.
I wrote some of this above but I love talking about my grandfather. My great-grandparents immigrated from Sicily to NYC in early 1900's. My grandfather was born in NYC. He joined the marines at 17 or 18 then was sent to the Pacific. He fought at Iwo Jima. My dad has said that my grandfather never talked about what he experienced. When he and his brothers would ask him to tell them stories, his only response would be, "I sure wish I could have had a nice cup of cold water." My dad said they learned early on never to wake him from sleep because he would jump up ready to fight. There is no telling what he experienced and I think of him every single time I sing the National Anthem. Thank you to my Papa Joe. Thank you to your dad and uncles.
WWIi was the last real war, as in declared by Congress, the US fought. All the ones since have been executive actions. And we now have career bureaucrats in the executive branch who have no allegiance to the president. Think about the ramifications of that.
I am always astounded to read articles on The Free Press that I don't think I would ordinarily choose to read and then come away glad that I have read them. I found this very moving, especially the ending, and I thank the author for sharing this.
I couldn’t have said it better so I’ll just say you’ve perfectly captured my thoughts and emotions. I think of my dad, Jose, who emigrated from Cuba at a young age, joined the army and was in during the Korean War. Thankfully, he survived and these stories help me to appreciate his journey so much more.
Thank him for his service for us all, if you still can. When my wife was sworn in as a citizen some 20 years ago, there was a young man from Cuba getting his citizenship, as well as a Marine from Mexico. I was honored to be in the same room as those willing to forgo ancestral homeland and be willing to risk life and limb to gain what I was born with.
Well said!
Very well said. I didn't think I'd read it all...
I also read it as an afterthought. Now tears are streaming down my face! Like Emilio, my father went to WWII aged 19 (to North Africa in the South African Engineering Corps). Unlike Emilio, he was unharmed and had many adventures - what is known as “a good war”.
Ditto, ditto! Well said and thank you. A few years before the plaque was laid there, I too lived near Bennett Park, and my kids played there.
Elsewhere in New York: https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1723347348661715103
I was born in Caen, Normandy and raised in a village a few kilometers north. Like all kids going to school in this region, I was taught extensively about World War II since this war left a lot of scars here (Caen was destroyed at 85% By allied bombing on D-Day and even today, non detonated munitions are regularly unearthed on construction sites, whole areas have to be evacuated for the munitions to be exploded safely by specialized technicians).
I visited the Omaha Beach American War Cemetery with my school has a kid, and back then I looked at it only from an intellectual standpoint: "These are the graves of dead American soldiers who fought in Normandy during World War II". And didn't think about it much more.
A few years ago, when I was on a vacation at my parents', I decided to pay a visit to this beautiful place. This time, being in my late twenties, I was able to look at all these white crosses from an emotional standpoint, as I read the birthdates and dates of death on the crosses. Most of these soldiers were 18, 19, 20...
And I realized fully then, that these young men had crossed the Atlantic to fight in France, in order to defend the idea they had of Freedom, in a foreign land far from home. Some survived a few weeks, some were barely able to advance a few meters on the beach, but all contributed to the Allies victory and the liberation of Europe.
I was almost crying, while considering their courageous sacrifice, not being sure I would have done the same, especially for a foreign country.
So, as someone who today is able to speak French instead of German, I would like to say to these men :
THANK YOU.
And our thanks to you for remembering and appreciating what our country did and meant for the world.
Let us not forget our debt to the French during the American Revolution or the Marquis de Lafayette who was knocking on General Washington's door at the tender age of nineteen to fight the British. He wintered with Washington at Valley Forge, and worked tirelessly to gain French financial and military support for the revolution. He was an American hero and by estimates, over a hundred American towns and cities are named after him.
The story of the surrender of Cornwallis's British army at Yorktown is what I always thought a good counter to anti-French sentiment. On the day of the formal surrender, the American and French commanders and their staffs awaited the arrival of the British on a hill overlooking the town, but when the British delegation arrived, Cornwallis was not present as he had feigned illness to avoid the embarrassment of surrendering to Washington. So, he delegated the dishonor to a staff officer who tried to present his sword to the Comte de Rochambeau Commander of the French forces aiding the Americans. The British officer, ignoring General Washington, offered his word to Rochambeau who refused to accept it and instead pointed to Washington. But Washington, aware of the intended snub, also refused to accept the sword of the junior staff officer and, in turn, pointed to his own subordinate, General Lincoln who had been an exchanged British prisoner after the Battle of Charleston. It was a ceremony of dishonor for the British and an honorable response from the French.
Also the great Lafayette College in Easton, PA.
I read, on the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day many US D-Day vets were going to visit the battle ground. The French in Normandy opened their homes to these vets as free bed and breakfasts.
We bombed the living daylights out of the Normandy beach area killing an unknown amount of French citizens and turning many towns into rubble. Yet in Normandy they are still grateful for us liberating them. They hated the Germans so much and it cost them so much yet they welcomed the invading GI as liberators.
I was a youngish Marine at the time of the 50th anniversary of D-Day and was among the troops sent there to support the ceremonies. We also had time to visit the American Cemetery, the beaches, museums and various battle sites as well as interact with the civilian populace. Around this same period I also visited some bigger French cities outside of Normandy (Paris, Marseilles, Cherbourg, etc). I and many of my fellow Marines had numerous instances in places like these where French citizens treated us rudely when they found out we were Americans. I was very much struck by the difference in Normandy, where the war and its memory was still very much present, and every last citizen we met, was very appreciative and cordial to all of us, all the veterans and current service personnel as well, and it was clearly a normal thing, not some thing just put on for the event. It would’ve been very touching on its own, but then, on seeing the contrast with the more metropolitan French areas, who also tend to look down on Normandy as provincials, it really highlighted deep impression that it will make on people, even if collateral damage must happen, when they see what sacrifices strangers made to set them free.
Don't be too hard on the frogs. Being rude to outsiders is in their DNA.
Even being rude with other French people 😁
Yes, if you don't have Parisian accent in Paris you are scorned.
I am so moved by the programs in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg to adopt the American soldier’s graves from both WWI and WWII so their sacrifice is never forgotten. https://www.legion.org/landingzone/222358/promise-kept
If I still lived in Normandy I would have loved to do that, but I am now in southwestern France, far away... 🙂
Dans les années 80, j’ai visitée La Cimetiere American en Normandie, et également celle du Canada à Courseulles sur Mer (pour la plage Juno). C’était très émotionnel. Quelle horreur que la jeunesse d’aujourd’hui aux États-Unis feront jamais cette espèce de sacrifice ni pour leur pays, ni pour la notion de la liberté. Vraiment, c’est tragique.
Thank you. I visited the War Cemetery and walked on Omaha Beach at Arromanches-sur-Mer just a few weeks ago. The experience was very moving. I share and appreciate your feeling of gratitude for the the Allies who fought in Normandy.
I cried for and with you. You are welcome!
A wonderful story to honor the fallen this Veteran’s Day. It’s a reminder that immigration and assimilation is an integral part of the American ethos. The Barbosas were proud to be Americans. I am dismayed that I can’t say the same for many younger folks these days that hate the greatest nation on Earth.
You're back. Great to see you.
I’m a Vietnam veteran. I am very fortunate to have returned from my tour there. Too many of my brothers in my rifle company arms did not. I think about my experience and those young men every day. My tour in Vietnam, and time in the army is the most transformative period of my life. I visited the American cemetery at Omaha Beach and walked among the various grave markers. I found a number of markers of young men who were killed at Normandy, who were in the same unit that I was in Vietnam.
As I said a prayer at the graves, it brought tears to my eyes, thinking about what these young men would’ve done with their lives. They made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat evil.
I do not see the same commitment from our fellow Americans. We take what we have for granted, and many in our society, think that our country is evil. I fear that we are losing the values and traditions that made us a great country, but we are in decline and America is breaking apart. I pray I’m wrong.
I was a teenager in SF during Vietnam. I remember the atrocious attitude people around me had toward young men sent off to some jungle. I remember how the media, Cronkite, chose to characterize the war in the worst possible light. Were there no heroes? Dirty hippies lying around, smoking dope in Golden Gate Park had the moral high ground here? I didn’t understand. My father served in the Pacific, everyone was a hero then. Eventually there was a collective guilty conscience for how our Vietnam vets were treated. It was a national shame. Those hippies should have polished your boots. I hope you can forgive so many Americans for mistreating you. Thank you for your service.
So easy to forget Hollywood lauding Jane Fonda as she betrayed our troops. Imagine spitting on kids whose were serving their country, many of whom were drafted. These are the same people who have such unhinged moral compasses that they worship Hamas as "freedom fighters."
When I returned home from Vietnam, in 1972 we landed at Travis Air Force Base east of San Francisco west of Sacramento. Before we deplaned, we were advised to remove our uniforms as we stepped into civilian life. Military uniforms in 1972 were a target for abuse verbal And otherwise. I’ve been home long time, I’m 74 years old. And out this morning and offering my daily prayers and expressed gratitude for the opportunity. I had to serve my country when called upon. I was not a Warhawk, but I knew what duty was , and when I was called I served.
One of my proudest possessions is a picture of Jane Fonda. VN vets will know what I am referring to.
Something like this?
https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/BsUAAOSwfIxZY0Zh/s-l500.jpg.
I'd piss on her grave, but after I got out, No more standing in long line for me!
I wouldn’t even cross the street to piss on her if she was on fire.
Scripture tells me to forgive. OK I forgive her....But I Don't forget.
I was in a US Army recruiters office on my 17th birthday (in Jan.1973). I was told I had to wait until I was 18 to join. Even at that young age I was astounded that so many supposedly "peaceful" young people who chose a free-spirited, drug-filled, debaucherous lifestyles could somehow consider themselves paragons of virtue and rail against soldiers and society in general.
I'm definitely no Saint but I'm glad I was finally able to serve and to this day I'm proud to consider myself a brother to all others who had done the same.
You are right...everyone was a hero then. This story reminds me a little bit of my grandfather who was a marine and fought at Iwo Jima. He was in the 2nd wave. I am always so proud to talk about him. My great-grandparents immigrated from Sicily in the early 1900's. Like most, they went through Ellis Island and settled in NYC. My grandfather was born in NYC. He joined the marines at 17 or 18 then was sent to the Pacific. My dad has said that my grandfather never talked about what he experienced. When he and his brothers would ask him to tell them stories, his only response would be, "I sure wish I could have had a nice cup of cold water." My dad said they learned early on never to wake him from sleep because he would jump up ready to fight. There is no telling what he experienced and I think of him every single time I sing the National Anthem. Thank you to my Papa Joe.
Must have gotten something in my eye…..
Today? We have to remind people what Veteran’s Day is, it’s not a reason for big sales at mattress world.
Our son and daughter are young adults and we have always made sure they knew about their great-grandfather. Also, my FIL was in the navy on a destroyer during the Korean War. We have made sure our kids are patriots.
My dad joined the Navy in preference to being drafted wherever the government chose ("I would rather ride than walk," he said), and he spent the war in the South Pacific. He was a medic (Pharmacist's Mate in Navy parlance), and spent quite a while at the field hospital on Guadalcanal. On one occasion, he was nearly hit by a Japanese plane strafing the area: "If not for the anti-aircraft gunner, I wouldn't be here now."
That was one of the few things he had to say about his time in the service, even though I, as a curious child, asked questions whenever something reminded me of WWII. Most of what I know about his heroic efforts I learned from a book written by the captain of the LCS 86, where he spent the second half of the war. With only the mess room for a surgery and the cook as an assistant, he saved the lives and limbs of so many men rescued from the U.S.S. Braine (hit by a kamikaze during the Battle of Okinawa) that a hospital ship commander came personally to commend him.
He was 26 when he joined up--an "old man" among boys of 18.
They really didn't like to talk much about it at all. Just a few vignettes from which we could piece things together. And we can all only guess at what they saw and felt. And how so many of them carried the internal scars. My Dad wasn't the easiest man to either my Mom or us. In time we came to understand, forgive and learn to honor him.
"I was a teenager in SF during Vietnam. I remember the atrocious attitude people around me had toward young men sent off to some jungle."
We see the same type of people marching these days. Punks is the word that comes to mind.
I also am thankful for my father in law who was in the navy. He served in the Korean War and was on a destroyer.
Off topic: Vote Dem/Soc support terrorism:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-keeps-the-billions-flowing-to-iran/ar-AA1jJHYZ?cvid=203b0ca7617040f1b1c20eb8a8a3f731&ei=39
🤬
The silent majority still values the sacrifice of service members like yourself. Our Republic is forever in gratitude for your service.
I have told this story before. When I visited the D-Day cemetery, there was an old woman sitting on her walker that had a seat on it. I asked her how she liked the tour we were on. She said mournfully, "All these young men, their young lives taken, all that lost potential."
I said, "No, they gave their greatest potential here on this beach. Without them we wouldn't be speaking English today. Europe and the world was saved because of them."
I have said this before and had Democrats scoff, saying, "Speaking English today? Really?"
Possession of objectivity is a Class A felony these days. There is an entire industry in place to criminalize and prevent it. The MSM's Brian Stelter sat by and gloated as criminal fascist Schwab/Davos billionaires proclaimed that the American right to free speech was over. The D.C./DNC? Crickets. Doesn't (if you believe Taibbi- and I do) the assault on free speech tell us everything we need to know?
I'm wondering, if conjecture that the Republican Party actually isn't interested in mounting effective political opposition to the obvious CCP style fascist corporatist dystopia the DNC is building, doesn't hold at least some truth. Their entire Republican platform seems to be MIA.
I have no idea how large or small the chances of the Ramaswamy candidacy might be. But, he is (in my view) trying to have the right conversation. The American Revolution of 1776 is the core reality that informs the fact of the lives we are living. The Revolution is not, nor will it ever be, over. Most of the fascist corporatist/"woke" psyop is aimed at the distortion of that reality. Their goal is the imposition of a kind of national insane asylum amnesia where CITIZENS become criminalized THINGS and forget who they are.
If today we are remembering those who died in battle, let us also remember why.
Got Constitution?
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for your service. My father was an older Vietnam veteran. He was OCS in the Air Force in 1951 and retired in 1973. When he went in, a man in uniform could not pay for his own cup of coffee. Someone would always insist on buying it for him. When he retired, he was a war, criminal and baby killer. He crawled inside a bottle and never came out.
I was a trader at the Chicago Board of trade, and our office had a magnificent view north down LaSalle Street. I cannot remember the year, but Chicago finally had a decades, long delayed parade for its Vietnam vets. It was at least a mile long coming down LaSalle Street and thousands turned out to cheer. it was led by a man whose legs had been blown off and who walked on his hands. Moving Beyond words. Validation and closure at last for many, yet too late for so many more.
Different dad, different war, same scars. Sounds like you've learned to forgive. We can't judge when we never had to face what they did.
Tom
1986 amazing parade
https://fox59.com/veterans-voices/veterans-voices-largest-vietnam-veterans-parade-held-in-chicago-in-1986/
Thank you for your sacrifice George.
Thank you for your service George.
Thank you for serving our country, George.
Thankyou for do many years i have felt safe starting to loose that comfort
There is a story behind every man and woman who died in service of their country. Thank you for researching and telling the story of one of the many, Emilio RIP.
so so so many lives lost; people's sons, brothers, husbands. It's so important to remember them when we enjoy our freedoms.
Daughters, sisters and wives too 🙏🏼
My mom joined the Marine Corps Women's Reserve to free up men for fighting.
Yes 1000%
If Emilio were alive today he would be heartbroken to see what kids these days think of America. When they turn our beautiful country into a tyrannical dictatorship like the one the Barbosas escaped maybe they'll appreciate it then. Make America Cool Again.
“If Emilio were alive today he would be heartbroken”
And not just for the reason you cite. Having witnessed the unimaginable horrors of war, I suspect that witnessing the empty sloganeering of mealy mouthed politicians and generals determined wage perpetual war, wars that the sons and daughter descended from Emilio might have to fight, would be far more heart wrenching.
On this Veterans Day, please give praise to all those so who so selflessly fought and died for a country they believed in. Please give help and hope to all those who’s fought, returned home, and remain broken from the horrors they witnessed. And please hold accountable all those so willing to waste their lives, and future lives in places the rest of us don’t know and for reasons they want us to forget.
I wonder if America faced the same dilemma as in the early 194O’s, how many young Emilio’s would answer the call? I wonder if many really know what it means to be an American?
I partially blame the parents.
I'm one of them, ADAB—assigned democrat at birth—I dove in aiding and abetting my kids to believe conservatives were moronic racist nerds, that america was a land to disdain, took my daughter to her first pride parade and to our local BLM march etc and so forth. i woke the fuck up just a couple years ago when my daughter decided she was a gay man and the school changed her name and pronouns behind my back. Now my son thinks i'm a homophobe and my husband and i are at odds like never before. the strain at times is excruciating but i am still so thankful to have finally seen the light.
https://mrsmiller.substack.com/p/48-hours
Mrs Miller I'm sorry what you just be dealing with your daughter and son. I hope things work out for you but I think they will. The fact you and your husband are in this together makes it better. Don't let them ruin your kids. Thanks for sharing your story!
Thank you so much!
I love our community here on The Free Press. All great people with different backgrounds with "common sense" who want the best for America.
Me too! Thanks for the sub!
Me too. My story is a little different as I am not American. You and I are one of the many that the left has betrayed with its nonsense about gender, race and so many other issues. Keep strong……you are not alone!
Please everyone, get your kids out of public schools if you can!! So terribly sorry you're going through what must be a nightmare.
If only it were that easy, and solved the problem. If I were to pull my kid out of school, especially now when she is about to graduate, she would likely never forgive me, my husband would vehemently disagree with the decision and we would eventually divorce. The internet also does not go away, nor the adolescent urge to defy authority, which would result in her digging in deeper. In a nutshell, things would get worse, not better. So I appreciate your sympathetic edit. As it is, I believe my daughter has desisted, even though she would never admit it. She's a senior and practically out of there, headed for a college that is nowhere near ivy league status. One day she will thank me.
My comment was to other parents and grandparents out there with children just starting out. I wish you the best. It must be so hard not having your partner by your side....
Thanks Marcia! I appreciate it.
Don't take her out school as a senior, at that point it's too late. I think Marcia's message is for parents with younger kids. As with you son, I've dealt with depression and anxiety my entire life. It came to a climax in 2018 when I almost had a nervous breakdown and the depression made me a hermit. My family had to interject and I listened and sought help. Just keep on your son in a positive way and tell him to get off the weed. Marijuana can cause a lot of anxiety/paranoia.
Blessings upon you JJ. What you said about marijuana is very, very true of modern marijuana. That is not your grandaddy's weed.
I concur
My mother always fought like a tiger against all the stupid teenage decisions I wanted to make. Later, when I grew up, we became the best friends. I thank God that she cared enough to fight for my best interests, no matter how hard I fought against it. I know I didn’t make it easy for her, but she loved me enough not to let me screw up.
I hope, in the future, that your story will play out in a similar manner.
I feel like a tiger when I fight for my daughter--even though she thinks I'm fighting against her. Thank you and go mom!
We sacrificed. Greatly. We home schooled. Starting in 1979.
As a Mom, I am so sorry you are carrying this heavy load. Just think, if you woke up then your family could also wake up!
God willing!
As one of those you dismissed in your previous incantation as a moronic racist conservative be advised that I am unconvinced of your awakening and also unforgiving.
Lynne, this is one of the rare occasions I must disagree with you. When I think of how many wrongful and stupid things I've done in my own life, and how much I've been forgiven, it's easier to forgive others their own mistakes. Mrs. Miller is hurting from hers, and all the more so because the pain is within her family. You might not be "convinced" of her change of heart, but having developed such respect for you from your wise posts, I can't help but think you'll have one too.
Thank you grateful, I appreciate that very much.
I understand grateful1. I hope I am capable of changes of heart because otherwise that means mine has hardened. I try to avoid that. I also stand by the comment. I do not think she comprehends the harm she caused others while she was in the throes of her allegedly prior belief system, much less is sorry therefor. Rather she is sorry for the harm she caused hers.
Help me comprehend "the harm I caused others." You're clearly hurting, but I can't see how your pain is my responsibility. The thing I love most about leaving the left and realizing I already held conservative values is the concept of personal accountability. That's one value I have worked to instill in my kids and that will hopefully save them from being truly harmed by the ideology they embrace. you're pretty much the only person who has been an asshole to me about my former party affiliation. Most people find my change of heart hopeful and reassuring. One thing you can count on is that my shift is not "alleged." Not that I have anything to prove to you, but just putting it out there. We're on the same side. Infighting is ridiculous.
Thanks for replying, Lynne. I appreciate your take. I do think Mrs. Miller has a lot to absorb, since her world seems to have been turned upside down and inside out.
Wow okay. I guess you're not Christian lol.
I am. Just a flawed one. Like all of us.
Effing Hippies. My generation dropped the ball.
Hippies weren't the problem. They were a symptom. Then, as now, the problem was weak leadership. At least LBJ had the smarts to step aside.
Biden? A whole new level of evil, stupid, vapid, and misguided.
The college protesters today are similar to hippies, but far, far worse.
So then what is the problem? I know. I hope others are aware as well. It has much to do with what it means to be a Jew or not. Spiritually.
This is one of the places that the veil separating evolution and religion is especially thin and illusory. We evolved to be good at survival under adverse outside circumstances. Spiritual values embody that progress.
Now that we've conquered most of our adverse outside circumstances, the consequences for disregarding spiritual teachings are mostly gone.
Have we gone as far as we can?
Carl Sagan theorized that the main reason we haven't been contacted by aliens is that it's too difficult for civilizations to evolve past the hand-to-mouth stage without destroying themselves.
G-d predicted that we would fuck it all up, and the Messiah is going to make us start over.
Maybe we're all right?
Or all wrong
Hahahaha! That gave me a chuckle this morning.
But to be fair Jacinto, I'm 49 and I'm seeing my peers raise their kids also in a detrimental way. I won't even get into how mothers are trying to live their lives through their teen daughters (sickening) while the sons become men who are depressed and want to do nothing in life. It's truly sad.
These are MY peers that I grew up with.
I have offspring your age. It was no different for your people and look how you've turned out. Thank your folk.
Forgive me if I seem condescending.
It's ok, I didn't take it as condescending. My parents came from Italy so we grew up in a somewhat conservative, Roman Catholic household :). So I am thankful for my upbringing.
Effing A.
Effing Silent Generation, having so many kids after the war and building the economy so fast and losing control of all of it.
Thank you Mr Nocera. I walk my dog to Bennett park every morning for the last seven years and still don’t recall seeing a plaque. I will make sure to find it and pay homage. And thank you so much for reminding us all of sacrifice.
He was 19…19 YO, and already a veteran of war on two hemispheres. A credit to his family his nation and himself and gone too soon!
Godspeed PFC Barbosa
Thank you for sharing. So many unsung heroes- who were so very loved- fought for us and we must not forget them.
Left out are those who have served in "peacetime" and have lost their lives in training and while executing tasks associated with maintaining equipment often under hazardous conditions. Any person who has committed to service in the armed forces essentially writes a blank check to the Republic tacitly acknowledging it is redeemable up to but also including their life. If you're serving or if a loved one is but not being shot at presently, Thank you.
USN 1969-1975; note the intersection with the Vietnam Era. But I spent most of my hitch "sailing sand," as we called it, at the Naval Reactors prototype facility outside of Idaho Falls and was never anywhere close to combat. Felt squeamish about that until a guy, missing a body part, at a bar, quite forcefully and very indelicately enforced that observation upon me about Signing the Blank Check. With the further observation that we may not be faulted or devalued for good (or bad) luck,
Be well.
Great point.
A truly great American story. The contrast with what we have watched the past five weeks in America's streets and campuses is telling. God bless all the Emilios and his brothers who helped protect our precious freedoms.
Yip it’s definitely telling.
what a touching story. Thank you for adding humanism to this important day, Im sure there so many Emilios and thank God for them.
Yes indeed. Thank God for all the Emilio's! This story was heartwarming in a time when we need more Emilio's. My heart goes out to all who lost their lives defending this still great country. We need more people like Emilio once again.
Semper Fidelis, Emilio
And happy late birthday
These sacrifices will be in vain if adherents of a conquest ideology continue to be permitted to enter America. I made this point 20 years ago after I read the Koran. Who couldn’t have predicted there would be a rise in antisemitism with more Muslim immigration? All but the wilfully ignorant knew what would happen. So now we have these people and young ignoramuses protesting Israel’s defense of itself. Six million dead Jews was not enough.
This was a beautifully written article. It makes me think of Lincoln's line from the Gettysburg Address that we should never forget what they did here. It also stirs a line from Bob Dole, who said they gave up their tomorrows so we could have our today.
I loved how Joe Nocera gave the history of the man, his family, and the effects of losing a loved one. I enjoyed reading how he jumped into the war as his brothers did or his love for his country, as it was the one he only knew. In today's race-obsessed world, I am reminded that was not always the case: ethnicity mattered, and the communities within cities that people grew up in grieved as well.
Finally, we need to look at our culture and education system that the less sophisticated eras of the past produced Emilio, whereas today, we have people who cheer Hamas.
Another great article, thank you for that.
Great post!
I lived in that neighborhood for many years and was in that park about a million times. There is a long staircase that starts from Pinehurst Avenue down to
W. 181st St. which is in the shadow of the massive George Washington Bridge. There's a lot of Washington named stuff up there: Bridge, Heights, Avenue. After reading this, I imagined young Emilio running up and down that staircase bursting with youthful exuberance, rushing to his next ballgame. What has always struck me as amazing was the (I'm going to call it) moral clarity that the WW2 generation seemed to be in possession of. The willingness to drop everything to go and fight Hitler and Hirohito; to take a stand and be willing to put one's ass on the line; to be willing to say "this is wrong", and do something to stop it, including dying is something we can all use more of. There didn't seem to be much moral relatively (who are we to judge, we're just as bad?) going on. I'm not advocating to run off to war every other minute. But sometimes it's okay to judge something as evil. My dad and all of my uncles served in WW2, and one of my uncles was killed in Holland and is buried under one of those white crosses there.
I wrote some of this above but I love talking about my grandfather. My great-grandparents immigrated from Sicily to NYC in early 1900's. My grandfather was born in NYC. He joined the marines at 17 or 18 then was sent to the Pacific. He fought at Iwo Jima. My dad has said that my grandfather never talked about what he experienced. When he and his brothers would ask him to tell them stories, his only response would be, "I sure wish I could have had a nice cup of cold water." My dad said they learned early on never to wake him from sleep because he would jump up ready to fight. There is no telling what he experienced and I think of him every single time I sing the National Anthem. Thank you to my Papa Joe. Thank you to your dad and uncles.
WWIi was the last real war, as in declared by Congress, the US fought. All the ones since have been executive actions. And we now have career bureaucrats in the executive branch who have no allegiance to the president. Think about the ramifications of that.
Heart-wrenchingly beautiful. My heart hurts and is full at the same time.