Bob CollinsThe Greatest Generation might be the last generation of great letter writers, missives home that read like great literature. We had a greater command of the English language back then. A formality,too. We may never approach such writing again. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
War
Melvin Rector, 94, spent considerable time in his post World War II years regretting that he never returned to England, where he was a radioman on several B-17s and a gunner on another — Memphis Belle, perhaps the most famous B-17 in the war.
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If you’re looking for signs of progress in Afghanistan, a country infamous for its trampling of women, this is as good as any. Read more →
If not for this picture, Pvt. John P. Sersha’s gravesite in Europe would only carry the name ‘X7429’ and his family in Eveleth would never know what happened to him.
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Sid Shafner, 94, gets around in a wheelchair now, like many World War II veterans these days. But it wasn’t always that way.
He was a stand-up hero, part of a generation of them. Read more →
It’s such a shame that Congress couldn’t have passed the legislation allowing women who served as pilots during World War II to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, while Betty Strohfus of Faribault was alive to see it.
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The House voted 129-3 to pass a bill that encourages schools that voluntarily provide character development education to include Congressional Medal of Honor history and values in the curriculum.
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Frank Levingston, the nation’s oldest living World War II veteran has died. He’d held the distinction for only two weeks. Read more →
AP photographer Joe Rosenthal didn’t get the names of the guys who re-enacted the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945. There was a war going on and some of the men pictured were dead not long after he took the photograph.
It was left to the ages to figure out and, for the most part, the ages did a pretty good job crediting John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Harlon Block, Michael Strank and Franklin Sousley for their display that buoyed a nation that was sick of the war and its thousands of casualties.
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Al Hams, who started a few music careers when he owned Al’s Music in St. Cloud, isn’t allowed to forget Vietnam. Not anymore, anyway.
He’s got Parkinson’s Disease, believed to be linked to the widespread use of the Agent Orange defoliant he was exposed to during the year he served in Vietnam.
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Things that get old: Soldiers
Things that never get old: Videos of old soldiers on their Honor Flight to the World War II and Korean War monuments in Washington.
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The way history is taught in many public schools, kids will never learn about the Vietnam War, which is a shame because they’ll never learn about people like Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest who was the face of opposition to a war that killed more than 50,000 Americans. Read more →
Randall Thom, from Lakefield, Minn., showed up at the home in Monticello and gave the family the dog wrapped in an American flag. Read more →
There should be an alternative for a veteran with PTSD than a cell. But when Joe Serna, 41, a former Special Forces member who has been awarded three Purple Hearts, appeared in a court, North Carolina District Court Judge Lou Olivera didn’t have a lot of choice when Serna admitted he lied about a recent urine test. He sentenced him to a day in jail.
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Let the record show that when the Minnesota veterans of World War II and the Korean War walked into a restaurant on their Honor Flight to visit the World War II and Korean War memorial on Saturday, the people in the restaurant knew just what to do. Read more →