The Dropout and the Princeton Grad

Memorial Day Reflection

If my dad were still alive, he would have turned 104 last Sunday (May 18). He was 20 years old when WW II began and served in the Army Air Corps during the war.

One of my most treasured possessions is an old, black and white photo of my dad and Jimmy Stewart when they served together in the Air Corps. The photo was developed in April, 1942. But it must have been taken some months earlier because Stewart was commissioned as an officer in January, 1942, yet in the photo he still has a non-com’s stripes on his sleeve.

Because my dad was short and Jimmy Stewart was so tall, they look a little like Mutt and Jeff in the photo. There were other — less visible — differences between them. My dad was a poor boy from Mississippi — a high school dropout due to his father’s untimely death when my dad was only 14. Jimmy Stewart was a Princeton grad and a movie star. When that photo was made, though, they were just two enlisted men serving their country in a time of war.

My dad was more than a decade younger than Jimmy Stewart, yet Stewart outlived him by 20 years. Both of them died, though, before the turn of the century and before the worst of the bitterness and anger consuming the country now. On this Memorial Day weekend, it’s hard not to wonder how they and those who gave “the last full measure” during that war would think about where our nation is today. Would they think the sacrifices they made and those made by all the others who served, suffered, and died in subsequent wars were worth it?

When America was pushed into WWII, the country united in its efforts to win the war. The cause seemed just and most young men — whether poor Mississippi boys or Princeton-educated movie stars — were eager to fight for their country. Those who couldn’t fight served in other capacities or worked to provide the ships, planes, and ammunition the soldiers needed. Sad to say, I’m not sure we could meet a similar challenge today.

This Memorial Day, in the midst of your holiday celebration, take a moment to thank a military veteran if you know one. And take a few more moments to pray for this country and our leaders, for reconciliation between political opponents, for tempers to cool, and rancor to end. Let your prayers be your act of service for this nation. And may the Lord have mercy on us.