Thanks to The Clipper for two wonderful reminders about “The Last Great Generation” that you recently printed.

The first was a letter to the editor (11/21/08) from “Chuck” Davis, an 85-year-old WWII veteran who shared an inspiring story about his 672nd Army Am Track battalion reunion, and his chance meeting with the son of one of the prisoners at Los Banos (Luzon) POW camp in the Philippines (1945), a camp liberated by his battalion.

The second reminder was Mark Carey’s Chesapeake article (11/23/08) featuring James Etheridge, another WWII veteran who served in the Philippines, receiving the Purple Heart and The Bronze Star after being wounded by mortar fire on a beach near Manila.

Much has been said about the generation that these two men represent, but there can never be enough said to repay the huge debt we owe all of the people of my parents’ generation. The two above-mentioned heroes, as well as the folks who stayed on these shores and sacrificed to support the war effort, left all of us some very big shoes to fill. I cannot say that my generation – or any that have followed it – has come close to measuring-up to the standard set by them. I'm not sure any of us can even truly imagine what price was paid so that we can enjoy the freedom that we have.

To those two men (true heroes in my book), and the rest of a generation that we are too-quickly losing, I say a humble, “Thank you for a job well done and for a gift we too often take for granted.”