As we head into Memorial Day weekend, it’s a great time to read “Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul.”
One powerful story tells about Mike, shot down in 1967 and captured by the Vietnamese. He grew up poor in Alabama — he didn’t wear shoes until he was 13.
Mike made a needle out of a piece of bamboo and gradually sewed scraps of red and white cloth into an American flag. He sewed the flag onto the inside of his prison-issued shirt.
Every afternoon, the American prisoners hung Mike’s flag on the wall and said the Pledge of Allegiance.
One day, the guards discovered the flag and confiscated it. They beat Mike severely, puncturing his eardrum and breaking several ribs.
Later, after everyone else had fallen asleep, Mike was seen in the corner under the light bulb. His eyes nearly swollen shut, he quietly picked up his needle and began sewing a new flag.
Another fellow explains how he was blown off the USS Astoria. He grabbed his rubber lifebelt and inflated it. It kept him afloat for several hours.
During his next leave, he told his family his survival tale and showed them the lifebelt. His mother picked it up and was amazed at what she saw.
She had been an inspector at a local rubber plant, where the lifebelts were made, and inspected the lifebelt that saved her son’s life.
Another man, who was raised in bigotry and racism, taught his own children to treat every human being with dignity and respect — because of what he experienced in World War II.
He was Sgt. L.G. Pool, a Texas-born bull rider who commanded a Sherman tank.
One night, he ran out of fuel. He and his men were “sitting ducks” trapped five miles behind enemy lines.
Two of his men volunteered to travel five miles on foot carrying a five-gallon can of fuel — putting their lives at risk.
Sgt. Pool and his men were saved because of their bravery. One man was Native American, the other Black.
There’s another story about four chaplains on a sinking ship. The chaplains took off their lifebelts and strapped them onto other men.
All four chaplains died when the ship went down.
Another story tells what happened after an American battalion pushed back the Germans near a small Belgian town. One GI heard church bells ringing. He went into town to celebrate Mass.
He saw a priest begin the service, but there was no altar boy. The GI, a former altar boy, walked to the altar and served the priest.
After Mass, he followed the priest into the sacristy. Beneath his garments, the priest wore a German officer’s uniform — he was a chaplain in the German army.
“Even in war our common humanity, under the same God, can triumph over hatred and division,” the authors write.
It’s one of the great paradoxes of human existence that in the midst of war — when human nature is at its worst — human courage, sacrifice and compassion rise to their best.
Memorial Day is set aside each year so that we remember the men and women who paid the ultimate price for the freedom we enjoy.
May we never forget what they gave us — and live our lives in a manner worthy of their courage.
