More on WW II vets
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- June
- 6
Today, we have an editorial about the 65th anniversary of D-Day (see here), a news story talking 
to locals who were at Normandy (here) and a column by staff writer Rich Liebson, (here) who pens the “At Ease!” blog on veterans issues, wrote this column.
I had the opportunity to speak this week with Jerry Donnellan, who is director of Rockland’s Veterans Service Agency. He’s always a wealth of information about current veterans and military issues, and he knows his history. We were talking specifically about World War II veterans, and all that is lost as we lose that “Greatest Generation.”
Each war has its nuances, “a different culture of sorts,” said Donnellan, a Vietnam War combat vet. “The World War II veteran came out of the Depression, from hardship,” he said, and then came back, rejoined society with the help of the GI Bill. Plus, their war experience was different. “They left as a unit, and they were going to be together until this whole damn thing was over … they didn’t know if it would be a year, 10 years from now or if ever,” Donnellan said. “The camraderie and family relationships that was the World War II veteran, I don’t think has ever been seen again.”
AP PHOTO: A woman walks among the graves at the American Cemetery at Colleville-Sur -Mer, near Caen, western France on Saturday during the 65th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy. (AP photographer Francois Mori)
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on Saturday, June 6th, 2009 at 8:14 am by Nancy Cutler.
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