Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Memorial Day Recollection from Dennis -

I'm afraid work has turned positively reminiscent of the story of Sisyphus right now...things may be a mite sparse around here for a few days while I pay for my temerity in running off to have fun camping last week (that's what those squall pictures were from - fortunately they were nice enough to hold off until after we'd gotten up, had breakfast, & packed up the campsite).

Dennis from the Chelsea Yacht Club had sent the following note...think he noticed I haven't had much writing time lately & thought I might be interested in posting for Memorial Day. Tried to work it into a little Memorial Day musing of my own, but work's so crazy I can't seem to write anything that doesn't ring completely phony...good that there are still Dennises and DaveO's who are still telling the stories they heard from their parents...

The conflicts we have now are so confusing next to those stories, that one just seemed so relatively straightforward, there were bad guys & good guys who were actually fighting for countries (oversimplifying but you know what I mean, right?), and there was an end. Maybe it didn't make as much sense in the middle. Probably not to Dennis's father-in-law's friend's wife. Wonder how our today's will be remembered in 65 years.

Dennis's email:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_LST-455 History of my Fatherinlaw's ship in the Pacific.

His best friend and shipmate was killed in the second Japanese attack on the ship. Evidently he wrote a letter to the wife of his friend and follows is a transcript of a V-MAIL that he received from his friends brother.

TO: MR. Mell USS Achilles ARL 41
FROM Eddie Daigle USMC San Francisco

Just a letter of thanks for the kind letter you wrote to my sisterinlaw, the wife of my late brother, J Daigle.
Many thanks for writing to his wife. A little thing like that made her feel like he was not so lonely and had a friend at the time of his death.

Yours Truly
Eddie Daigle

This letter is 64 years old but it could have been written just as well yesterday.

You are welcome to post this if you think people would care to read it.

Dennis - -

No comments: