Multiple Veterans in the Family

On this Friday before Memorial Day, we can think together about the concepts of honor and recognition.  We can be challenged to move beyond taking for granted the sacrifices that others have made and truly reflect on and show appreciation for those who have sacrificed their lives for a cause greater than themselves. In Romans 13, we read:

7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

We live in a world in which we have to guard against being self-centered.  If our view of the world is that it revolves around us, then we can easily miss the contributions that others have made for us and we also eliminate or diminish the impact of God on our lives and our culture.  So, we can take time to remember and acknowledge the enormous sacrifice of love that Christ made for us, and we can also reflect on what others have done for us, including those who have served in our military.

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God calls us to be loyal to Him first and foremost and to honor those who serve in authority over us. Those who have given or risked their lives for the sake of our country are deserving of honor and I
think that it is highly appropriate and meaningful to recognize their service.   Here's what 1st Peter 2 says:
13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme,
14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men--
16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.
17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

Columnist Dr. Paul Kengor wrote a piece last year on 5 brothers who had served together in World War II.  He had tracked down the last surviving brother in his hometown in Pennsylvania.  According to a piece on the Vision and Values website from Grove City College, there were 5 Bailey boys: Dick, Jim, Fonnie, John, and Fred.  The author mused: "Surely, some were protected with a desk job on the home-front? No, all five were dispatched into enemy territory."

He wrote:

“All had combat,” says Dick.

All volunteered for combat after Pearl Harbor, and all faced it—Europe, the Pacific, Northern Africa; by land, by air, by sea.

One of them, Fred, was shot and taken prisoner by the Nazis. “The Germans didn’t treat him well,” said Dick. “Fred said it was horrible…. He was only 110 pounds when he came home.”

Dick was in the Army Air Corps. He and his brother John were in the war the longest. He served on six islands in the Pacific, including the Philippines. In the Schouten Islands, the Japanese bombed almost every night, late at night, typically two hours at a time, throughout Dick’s eight-month stay. “You didn’t sleep very much,” says Dick in his typical understated way.

In all, Dick served continuously from December 1942 until January 1946. And it was truly continuous. “I was never home the whole time until January 1946.”

Remarkably, all 5 brothers survived the war.

Dick told Dr. Kengor that the war had been "quite an experience."  The author concludes the piece by writing:

Asked if he would do it over again, he smiles and says, “as long as I came back alive.”

Dick and all his brothers did just that.

How can we honor them today? We can honor them by not destroying the America they were willing to sacrifice everything for.

Dr. Kengor, following the publication of that article, was made aware of 7 brothers of Polish descent who fought in World War II.  He relates in a piece on the Human Events website a letter he received from a man who wrote: “My mother, Stella Pietkiewicz, had seven sons serve in WW II. She had the honor to christen the plane, Spirit of Poles, because she had the most sons who served in WW II.”

Along with the letter was an old newspaper clipping that showed six Pittsburgh-area mothers, all of Polish descent, who had 33 sons in service. Anna Lozowska, Maryanna Sawinska, Katarzyna Antosz, and Mrs. Joseph Wojtaszek each offered five boys to the cause. Honorta Lachowicz provided six sons. Stella Pietkiewicz took the prize with seven.

Kengor writes:

And so, these Pittsburgh-area Polish women knew this battle was worth fighting. Their sons did, too. And Stella Pietkiewicz gave the most.

I don’t know the fate of all 33 boys, but Stella’s sons, remarkably, all returned home safely.

And the author closes the piece in a very similar fashion as the original:

How can we repay families like these for their sacrifices 70 years ago? We can start by not destroying the America they were willing to die for.

What wonderful stories of bravery and devotion to kick off our Memorial Day weekend.  And, it really brings to mind the way that war affects families.  Fortunately, all the Baileys and all the Pietkiewicz sons came home.   As Kengor points out, as the movies "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Fighting Sullivans" relate, the U.S. military resolved to never again have so many brothers serve in one war.  As he says, "The loss of one is hard enough for a mom and dad. To lose two, three, four, or, incredibly, five … would be staggering, seemingly un-survivable for a parent."

But, loss is part of the devotion to a cause that is greater than ourselves, than our families.  On this Memorial Day, we remember those whose lives were lost and countless others whose lives were dramatically altered in order to fight for that greater cause.

And, the cause of freedom is still relevant today.  We think of World War II and the unspeakable evil that was perpetrated by the Nazi regime, and the audacity of a nation to actually attack American interests in the Pacific.  The battle lines were clear, and there was a moral imperative to stand and fight.

The moral imperative is still at work today.

At home, there are those who would trample our religious freedom in order to further ideas and behaviors that violate the principles of Scripture and practices that have served America well for hundreds of years and societies far and wide for thousands.

Around the world, there are dedicated, albeit deceived, warriors who stand in opposition to American ideals and Christian philosophy who are actually killing Christians in the name of their god, who is not our God. Even though we live in a world where the lines between right and wrong have been clouded, we adhere to a God who has delivered to us absolute truth and calls men and women to abide by that truth and to discover His love and to know that His ways are best.  On this Memorial Day, we take time to remember those who have given their lives for the freedom we have as believers to live according to our deeply held beliefs.