"My Forgotten War and Their Forgotten Graves"

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Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 11:51 am

A friend sent me this article today. I can't improve on what she wrote, so...

Quote:

"Good piece for Remembrance Day, I thought.
And I do like the last line. "... all anyone can safely say about the future is that it’s nothing we can picture from where we stand".
Well and truly said."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/opinion/remembrance-day-israel-soldiers.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20171110&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=16&nlid=61373259&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 7:41 pm

There are many forgotten wars and forgotten graves.

It was a Saturday during the summer of my twelfth year. I had gotten off work and the sun had just gone down.

I mixed up some white phosphorous (willy peter) and naphtha and was squirting it all over the back yard. WP will spontaneously ignite after the solvent evaporates with a dense cloud of white smoke. The phosphorus would then deposit or desublimate on the edges of tree leaves and blades of grass that the smoke came in contact with.

After a few minutes I had used up the mixture and the back yard was glowing. I was admiring the outline of edges and veins on the tree leaves when my father came out to take a smoke. He stared at the glow for over a minute.

He asked me if I had been playing with phosphorous. I told him yes and asked him how he knew.

He told me that after he had been captured he had come across a vast open dumping area of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. He said that they were just bones on top of bones and at night as they passed everything would glow from the phosphorous leaching out of the skeletons.

He waited about a minute and told me that he walked for many, many days and that every meter there was a mound where a soldier had fallen and was covered with dirt.

Forgotten men and boys that had parents, brothers, sisters, friends, children and wives.

He said "War is hell."

I felt badly for inducing a horrible flashback.

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 11:34 pm

Thank you to the military! You fight so others do not have to, and you protect the rights of those who cannot fight for themselves. No matter the country, I sincerely thank you for your service.

Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 11:47 pm

Thank you and hugs! Wink

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