Note: This commentary is by Dennis F. Rogers, who wrote it after reading a Boston Globe article at this link. If that doesn’t work, try this one.
Philip, Alma, and Anthony Pasquale.
Sixty years later, war still makes an impact. You wonder about the guys over in Iraq now. The guys from Vietnam paved the way for public problems — they were always there but previous generations kept it hidden.
Even back to the Civil War — many veterans were never the same. But this is interesting, as it is triplets — two of whom served in WW II — one with no problems at all and the other still haunted to this day. The troubled brother was never in ground combat, he was on a Navy command ship for the amphibious assaults.
However, the ship received many of the wounded and dead from Iwo Jima — and was off Okinawa — with the non-stop kamikaze assaults, the mental wear-and-tear must have been tremendous. Two of the worst and deadliest battles in WW II — and of course the reasons why the atom bomb was deemed necessary. “If it’s this bad just invading two islands, how much worse will it get invading their actual homeland?”
– Dennis Rogers
My Google toolbar includes this “RS” link for Rolling Stone magazine. A recent item that appeared there is an interview with both Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, conducted by New York Times columnist Maureen Down.