I just finished a book “The Boys in the Light,” a true World War II story about a tank division that landed at Normandy and, after traversing northern France and Germany, rescued two Holocaust survivors months prior to the end of the war. Against orders, the division kept the refugees, nursed them back to health and employed them briefly before the Americans redeployed home. The tank division crew ranged in age from 19-24; refugees were 17 and 18.
The book was personal for me because my dad was a tank gunner in WWII and received a medal after he survived being blown up in one. A similar incident is described in the book. Dad never talked much about the war, but the book brought home to me what he must have gone through.
In light of what is happening today, in Minneapolis, Venezuela and Greenland, it also left me outraged that someone who worked to avoid serving his country is playing God with the troops he supposedly called “suckers” and “losers” when he refused to visit the graves of the fallen in France.
It also highlights the fact he has no right to call the six senators who served honorably “traitors” for pointing out to servicemen and law enforcement that orders against the Constitution are illegal and should not be followed. This book gives several instances of disregarding questionable orders and, at least in WWII, there were no consequences to the troops for their integrity to their oaths.
Elizabeth Veronica Weaver
Hempfield