NOVEMBER 1986: A FORGOTTEN HERO; SOLDIER'S LEGACY DESERVES BETTER.Byline: Dennis McCarthy Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Myron Berger, you deserve better - so much better. You gave your life for your country. For that you were awarded the Silver Star, Purple Heart Purple Heart U.S. medal awarded to those wounded in military action. [Am. Hist.: Misc.] See : Bravery and Good Conduct Medal in World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave you a hero's commendation COMMENDATION. The act of recommending, praising. A merchant who merely commends goods he offers for sale, does not by that act warrant them, unless there is some fraud: simplex commendatio non obligat. and said this country would never forget you. And now your memory is here - in a torn, brown shopping bag found stuck in the back of an empty vault empty vault Rectal exam No poop in shute at a Van Nuys storage company. Your legacy as a fighting man was almost lost forever last weekend - thrown out with the leftover trash nobody else wanted. Hundreds of people seeking bargains on abandoned goods had pored through these huge wooden crates Crates (krā`tēz), fl. 449 B.C., Athenian comic dramatist. He is said to have introduced into comedy themes other than those of personal satire, and he was one of the first to show the comic possibilities of the drunkard. , but no one was willing to pay a dime for the contents in the brown sack. They wanted file cabinets, furniture to put in their dens, appliances for their kitchens. No one had come shopping for the legacy of a war hero. It was only one last check by Howard Suer, president of California Moving & Storage Co., that found your memory before the trash trucks were called in. A record of valor valor a rodenticide no longer marketed because of toxicity in horses causing dehydration, abdominal pain, hindlimb weakness, inappetence, fishy smell in urine. Called also N-3-pyridyl methyl N1-p-nitrophenyl urea. He put hs hand inside the bag and pulled out your Purple Heart. Then he found your Silver Star. Intrigued, he carried your service career to his private office, closed the door and scattered Scattered Used for listed equity securities. Unconcentrated buy or sell interest. the medals and yellowed papers across his desk. As he read, Suer began to shake his head. ``This is not right,'' he said to himself. ``This is just not right.'' ``Mrs. Edith Berger - 3027 East Carpenter St. Springfield, Ill. - The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your husband, Corporal Myron Berger, was killed in action on Eight October in France. Letter follows.'' This is how she found out, Myron. This is how all the widows found out - a Western Union telegram. Of all the papers in the bag, this one is the most tattered tat·tered adj. 1. Torn into shreds; ragged. 2. Having ragged clothes; dressed in tatters. 3. a. Shabby or dilapidated. b. Disordered or disrupted. . It is torn and wrinkled and stained - with what, tears? Certainly. Widow learns story Edith was anxious to know all the details of how you died, Myron, so she wrote the Army requesting more information. Your commanding officer wrote her back. She learned you were a scout for a rifle squad and that you were hit by sniper See sniping software. fire in the village of Moivron, France. ``Although dying and although the enemy continued to fire on him, he warned his squad of the snipers, located the well-hidden position and continued to fire on the enemy until death overcame him. ``By his gallant action, he created a diversion that enabled his squad to outflank and eliminate the snipers without further loss. His heroic determination to seek out, engage and destroy the enemy, even at the cost of his life, upholds the finest traditions of the United State infantryman.'' For this you were buried at age 36 with honors in the U.S. Military Cemetery No. 1, Andilly, France - grave 203, row 9, plt I. A sly smile Your death made the front page of your hometown paper in Springfield with a picture of you in uniform. Your face was strong, Myron - the sly smile and tilt of your cap made me think of a picture of my own father that was taken overseas. Edith collected $42 a month for life on your $10,000 life insurance policy, Myron. How long she lived, we don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. . If she is alive, she would be well into her 70s. What the brown paper bag does tell us, though, is that she waited five years before remarrying and had at least one son - the child you never had a chance to give her. That's about all I can write, Myron, because that's all I know. Your medals - still shiny and so impressive after 42 years - speak only of your heroism Heroism See also Bravery. Achilles Greek hero without whom Troy could not have been taken. [Gk. Lit.: Iliad] Aeneas Trojan hero; legendary founder of Roman race. [Rom. Lit. . I wish they could tell me more about the man who so deserved them. I have to admit that as I look through your papers and feel the weight of your medals, a part of me feels guilty - feels that maybe I should not pry into this dead man's life and write about it. But I agree with Suer. It isn't right that the memory of the life you gave to this count7ry should wind up in a brown paper bag in some storage bin - forgotten and unclaimed. If no one claims the medals, Suer said he will turn them over to the Veterans Administration. Somebody should remember. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion