“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. ”
My three main characters in Brothers of the Great Crusade had very different takes on America’s entry into World War II. The eldest wanted no part in leaving his wife and a good-paying job to go fight. The middle son wanted revenge for Pearl Harbor and an escape from farm life in the Appalachian Mountains. Caring greatly about the struggles of those overran by the Axis Powers, but naive about the ways of the world and war, the youngest fell somewhere in-between. Shaped by their unique experiences, each of their viewpoints had understandably shifted by the end of the war.
A reality of America’s Greatest Generation is that where you were and what you survived shaped who you became in the decades to come.
That was - if you were lucky enough to survive. The reality is that 400,000 of American’s never made it home. Globally, the death toll was staggeringly worse.
In my research, I came across the video attached below. It puts the death toll of World War II in much greater perspective than my words alone could ever describe.
Please take the time to watch this video. Please, take the time to consider what you can do – even as just one person – to make sure we never end up in a third conflict of death and destruction.