It was VJ Day today, and no one seemed to notice and a growing number of Americans wouldn't even know it stood for Victory in Japan or even know America was once in a death struggle with that warrior people in 1945.That all bothers me as much as those who will never know that bronze medal with black and red ribbon which reads Army of Occupation for those who policed the Japanese state with Gen. Douglas MacArthur in charge.
I owe a great deal to the Americans who fought, drove back and dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese, because one of the people I hold dearest in this world would have been dead never to influence my life for good, because he was the invasion force for the Japanese mainland.
Most children had to watch John Wayne on a movie screen, but as a child to adult I had a real John Wayne as my male example in life.
America I fear, produces too many heroes and that is their greatest tragedy.
I know of a hero right now in Oklahoma whose name I can not use, because he and his family deserve privacy in his waning years, but his story is one of bravery, gallantry and pure Americanism that is so much a part of America.
Instead of telling his story, I will make mention of an American most people have never heard of either for the most ignorant of reasons in Richard Ira Bong.
Richard Bong was a red haired Wisconsin farm kid like most of the farm kids who became heroes in World War II. Major Bong would go on in the Pacific to shoot down 40 Japanese aircraft with the wonderful P 38, which was a twin engine fighter.
The tale of this is simple. He was a natural pilot just like all of America's best in those we knew. Chuck Yeager had that horizon eyesight where he could spot planes before others could see them. Pappy Boyington and Joe Foss were just good hunters.
Richard Bong was not flashy. He simply knew his plane, flew it well, studied the situation he was in and then struck the enemy.
His first combat in America though was with an American housewife in California who Bong decided to play with as she was hanging out her clothes. Bong would fly so low he blew her laundry off the line.
His General, Kenney, after getting an ear full, called Bong into his office and told him that he was going to go to that woman's house, do her laundry, put it up, hang around and mow the lawn, take down the laundry and not drop any on the ground.
Richard Bong did all of that and proved the Army Air Corp was good for something other than annoying housewives.
He would complete the war covered with medals including the Medal of Honor. He would die though in serving America in America on of all days, the day America dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.
He was test flying a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star in jet propulsion when the plane malfunctioned and crashed too close to the ground.
It really doesn't matter how heroes die after they have become heroes. It does matter though that they should be remembered as much as what a sacrifice so many made for America.
FDR stated December 7th would live in infamy. September 2nd, 1945 certainly has not no more than the memories of too many heroes.
This blog will remember as many as can be here as it appears an Obama in the White House is ignoring the American sacrifice.
At least he didn't apologize to Japan today...........well at least that apology never made the news.
agtG
