Thanks, Jim, for I will be able to pass this on to a cocky little Greek who
now counts the people coming into Costco, but who 63 years ago parachuted
into Normandy with the 101 Screaming Eagles, and then experienced Christmas
in the frozen little town of Bastogne, isolated and under siege. As a
private in D Company of the 506th Parachute Regiment, he today ridicule's
the movie "Band of Brothers" as a bunch of bullshit that did not tell "the
true story". (In a photograph, he and six buddies were shown linking
shoulders together in France, with their now-fading autographs under an
also fading scrawl, "Our band of brothers". Like so many of the kids his
age in that era, those days now represent life's high point for Angelo
Dukelis. The front room of his home is as a memorial to the days he feels
he "made a difference" in the world, and he was able to show his love for
his country. As often as possible, he returns to France and Belgium,
putting flowers on the graves of his buddies, and on the grave of his CO,
and walking the now peaceful land he once trod. Maybe it is my overactive
imagination, but I can picture him today looking skyward to the drifting
parachutes on which he and other kids had the ride of their life.
The tragedy of it all? So soon we forget.
Buster Evans
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