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As 5th generation born in the USA, I am not your typical CR member.
I feel it is important to remember those members of the US Armed Forces, no longer alive, whose service allows us to live as frum Jews today.My grandfather was drafted into the US Army in WWI and served in Europe. Because his grandparents had come from the Pale of Settlement and taught him Russian, he was sent to Russia/USSR as a commander of US troops. He was able to arrange food and clothing supplies to the remnants of the Jewish community in Sapotzke (now in Belarus) where his grandparents had lived.
My father and two uncles went into the US Army in December 1941. My father graduated college December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day) and enlisted on Monday the 8th. All three fought in the European theater until discharge in late 1945.
My uncle on the Yekke side was parachuted into Germany in 1943 to spy and work with the anti-Nazi underground. After the US Army entered Germany proper, he was made a commander of a German officers POW camp and used his language skills to elicit information leading to conviction of war crimnals and recovery of some stolen Jewish money and art works.My late Father-in-Law was drafted during the Korean War. Not in a combat unit, he arranged a service rotation in his battalion that gave Jewish personnel time off for Shabbos and Yuntif. This unofficial arrangement lasted the entire 18 months he was deployed overseas.
To those who served to protect our First Amendment rights and provide a safe haven, whether persecuted by the Czar, Cossacks, Germans, Iranians or victims of famine, economic instability we remember and thank you for your service.
Thank you for telling us about family members’ military service. We live in a time and place of such incredible opportunity for frum Jews and it’s so important to remember that freedom isn’t free.
Here here!
(That’s “Hear, hear.”)
thanks amigo
CTLawyer -I am a 3rd generation American on my mother’s side. My grandfather and great uncle both served in WWI at the ages of 17 and 18 years old. My grandfather was shot and left for dead, dog tags sent home and a farm couple found him unconscious and nursed him back to health.
I try to imagine how my grandmother managed WWII with her son, son in law, and brother all fighting. My great uncle was there at pearl harbor and my kids were fascinated to hear him give a first hand account. When he died two years ago my boys were given a siddur he received from the chaplain when he served.I am a full third-generation American (i.e. all four of my grandparents were born here). My grandfather and his brother both served in WWII — my grandfather in the Pacific theater and his brother in the Atlantic.
My great-uncle was killed in action in Europe in 1945. My grandfather came home healthy and began a family. He longed to have a son, in order to name someone after his older brother but, alas, HKBH had other plans and he had five daughters. He never spoke of his service in the Pacific to any of his children and resisted any and all inquiries.
I have a copy of his service record and, recently, I inherited a photo album that he kept of his time being stationed in Hawaii. While they certainly provide some insight on his time in the service, I still don’t really know a great deal about it.
The Wolf
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