SOME THOUGHTS IN 2004 about 1944

Back in 1945 on May 7th, I was asked by the general’s chauffeur, Poole Jones, to make sure he got up early because he had to pick up “a yodeler” at an airport. The singer turned out to be General Alfred Jodl, who surrendered upon behalf of Hitler May 7th.  May 8th was proclaimed V-E Day, and I was in the avant-garde of a little parade that started in our section of Reims and ended at the magnificent cathedral and Joan of Arc’s statue.  Seeing a chap with a drum, I coaxed a Russian displaced person and a lively French gal to join in, and the three of us followed the drummer, soon finding the dozens behind us had increased to hundreds, all ecstatic that the war was over. Similar parades converged at the cathedral, and the champagne flowed all night long.

If you were alive back then, I am sure you can remember exactly where you were and what you were doing. 

In 1995 when I returned to Omaha Beach for the 50th anniversary, I got to stay very near the actual beach with a family who volunteered to house me. The wife’s ancestors were all from Normandy, Bernadette had married a Moroccan, Dadda Abdesalem, they had three children (Farid, Kaltoun, Samira), and for several days I had no option but to try to converse in French, which I handled quite well and was able to name their new puppy Pepsi. I then got to parade through Bayeux in my uniform (able to get into my Eisenhower jacket but somehow my pants, uh, had shrunk considerably).

Needless to say, I was proud of having led my company onto Omaha Beach, of being the Adjutant General’s chief clerk, and of having a leader like General Ike Eisenhower. My 3 1/2 years in the Army, starting at Fort Knox in the Armored Force, were admittedly easy, I confess, because as a chief clerk I never had to shoot a gun to get my two battle stars. When we GI’s returned home, we were lovingly welcomed and by using the G I Bill I received 3 1/2 years of free education that took me back to the U of Northern Iowa and on to Columbia University. To have served in the Army is something of which I am proud, although I did not receive the two Purple Hearts my father did at the Argonne and Verdun in World War I.

A few years ago, I woke up in another country altogether. For some time I have felt the leaders in Washington are dangerously flirting with switching our democracy to a theocracy, of leading us with the goal of gaining wealth for a select few rather than being inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the deistic view of our Founding Fathers.

Were I to be drafted into the Army today I would be so vocal against the present administration’s decision unilaterally to have attacked a country without doing so through the United Nations that I would most certainly rebel. I empathize with those soldiers who are now fighting here and abroad, for people around the world see many of them, not just the individuals involved in the present Iraq abuse scandals, much as the French saw the Germans when I was in Normandy. 

Even if Attorney General Rumsfield is ousted and a hundred others are penalized, our country will never be the same. If the entire Bush group is not defeated in the coming election, and even if they are brought to trial by some international tribunal, our country will never again be what it was. In short, I am ashamed today of much that has gone on since 1992. It is for this reason that I am penning the present e-mail to my many international friends and a few fellow Americans.

The one bright note is that my family in Bayeux on April 30th sent me a letter that arrived exactly on May 7th.  Roughly translated, the letter from the Abdesalems states that it has been 10 years since they have heard from me. They are getting ready to celebrate V-E Day, and they bring greetings from their neighbors whose place I also visited and stayed one night. Their front door is wide open and awaiting my return. They wish I had come this week for the 60th anniversary. They send many kisses and much affection to the person whose name they could not easily pronounce, which is why they called me Jacques-François Picard. 

Formidable, mes amis!  Et merci!   Happy V-E day, everyone!