The Veteran’s Day Blog I Meant to Write

I had intended to write this for Veteran’s Day and got sidetracked but here it is anyway.

Like most Baby Boomers, I was born after World War II but grew up in continual awareness of that war and all it meant to the people of my parents’ generation. It was an integral part of my young life. Back then it was “the war”. They didn’t have to say “World War II”, they just said “the war” and everyone knew.

My father (left) served in the Pacific. All three of his brothers did as well. My Uncle Burr died there, my Uncle Tom spent the war in a Nazi concentration camp. All their cousins served, many as pilots. Some didn’t get to come back. The War was ubiquitous even years--decades--after it was over. As my friend Mick, who served in Viet Nam says, “Once you’ve been to war, it is never over.”

Also like many of my generation, I don’t like the idea of war. Now, having lived through Korea, Viet Nam, Desert Storm, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, etc. I simply cannot believe that after all these millennia of human evolution going over there and blowing people away is the best we can do. But that is how it is. And on Veteran’s Day it is important to remember that, whether we like the idea of war or not, the veterans who served in all those wars and conflicts still deserve gratitude, honor, and respect. Back during the Viet Nam War, I was among those who wanted us out of there immediately but I was equally horrified by the treatment of returning Vets–-first by the general public and then by the government that cut every program, as it continues to do, that had been promised to those who served.

In recent years Gloucester has been embroiled in a big controversy about the erection of a monument to the veterans of World War II. Some take issue with the design of the monument, some with its location, some don’t think it should be erected at all complaining that it glorifies war. Gloucester contributed a disproportionate share of its young people to the war and those veterans who remain, now almost all in their eighties, have been deeply wounded by the controversy. It is a great shame.

At first I avoided involvement in this situation because, not being from Gloucester, I thought it was not my concern. But it was painful to watch the bitterness grow as objection after objection was raised. I couldn’t see what the problem was–-give the veterans the respect due them and move on. One of the issues was the design of the monument. But time was of the essence and options were disappearing. Memorial Day was approaching and the groundbreaking ceremony was scheduled for Kent Circle and, though there were ideas about what the monument would look like, there was no tangible vision.

Roger Armstrong, who is both the President of the North Shore Arts Association and a member of the WWII Monument committee, is a friend of mine. I have designed promotional materials for his galleries and I like talking to him. One day when I stopped to visit his gallery he showed me a photograph of a beautiful eagle that he said was his proposal for the monument. It was not at all what I had heard it to be–-instead of a smug eagle perched pompously atop the globe, it was a beautiful, soaring creature just about to alight as though in an attempt to rescue. I asked if he needed a hand bringing his vision into a tangible form and he said that would be so helpful. I am not a sculptor but I have been a technical illustrator for years and certainly know how to illustrate a prototype. I brought Roger’s photograph home and fired up the ‘puter.

And so, with the help of Black and Blueprints of Gloucester, we created a huge poster-sized illustration of the monument. It was displayed at the ground-breaking ceremony and now hangs in banks around town to help raise the funds. The project is moving forward again.

This is the point I want to make: when I made that illustration I didn’t do anything special except use the skills that I have been given to help make a vision tangible–-it didn’t matter how I felt about the project, it just needed to be done and I knew how to do it. In this world we are called upon to do things and, if we are a person of integrity, we do them. That is why people, whether or not they believe in the purpose of a war, chose to serve the country they live in. You are needed, you serve. You give what you have. That is honorable. That deserves respect.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to all who served. You are heroes.

Thanks for reading.