As we enter the Memorial Day weekend for 2023, I wanted to share for a moment a word I had heard in my psyche from a powerful scene in a movie most all of us have seen and are familiar with.
The epic Saving Private Ryan tells a story based partially in a real instance, but it is one that underscores the value and sanctity our country gives to the heritage of a family, and how important lineage is.
The U.S. Navy had a tradition of not allowing siblings to serve together, but for some reason they acquiesced when they insisted they all five serve together on the same ship. The Sullivan brothers, from Waterloo, Iowa all enlisted 3 January, 1942, in the shadow of course of Pearl Harbor. Tragically all were lost when their light cruiser U.S.S. Juneau was torpedoed during the Battle of Guadalcanal in November of that year.
The vessel was struck by a torpedo and in less than 20 seconds, sank in what came to be known as "Iron Bottom Sound" to give you an idea of the carnage that small area saw during savage battles in the south Pacific.
A strict policy was and has been since enforced to ensure a tragedy like this is unlikely to happen again, as was the standing order to evacuate any sole remaining sons in combat. The stage was set for a SGT Frederick Niland, who's lost a brother when he was shot down in Burma in May, 1944, and during D-Day he lost brothers Robert and Preston. During the chaos following the landings and air-dops into France, SGT Niland had disappeared somewhere in the morass of the battlefields around Normandy.
Stephen Spielberg took screenwriter Robert Rodat's fictional story and made it an epic tale of courage and sacrifice. It showed the reality each of these young men faced, all with their own perspective and personality, making the sacrifices even more compelling.
Near the end of the movie where the men are defending the last intact bridge leading into Germany, CPT Miller, played by Tom Hanks, is mortally wounded ironically by the very German he set free during an earlier scene. As he sits, waiting for the inevitable, he summons his last breath to honor all who served under his command and had lost their lives, and whispers into Ryan's ear:
"Earn this- earn it"
My first reaction was what a truly cruel and daunting task he placed on this young man, PVT James Ryan, played by Matt Damon. But over time as I reflected, it dawned on me that
WE ALL ARE PRIVATE RYAN.
Or we should be.
What we have is precious, and it is because of the brave that we are the land of the free. Reflect on this and remember why we celebrate this day- for those who could not return home.
John 15:13:
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Thanks to the support of Paul Allen (co founder of Microsoft) Juneau's final resting place was found in March 2018. The violence of her explosion left the bow and stern next to each other and the midsection nearly 1 km away, some 13,000 feet below the surface.
So, so far from Iowa...
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