Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, and originally commemorated those soliders who died on both sides in the Civil War. We have since come to honor all Americans who have died during military service on Memorial Day, and more and more people are using the opportunity to recognize and thank all of those who served. I want to do that this morning with my uncle Leo Simbeck, who is to my mind as close to the Jeffersonian ideal of citizenship as anyone I know. Coincidentally and wonderfully enough, he celebrates his 90th birthday today. He tried to enlist in the Navy after graduating high school in 1942, but was turned down because of a perforated eardrum. A few months later he was drafted into the Army, which wasn’t troubled by his ear. He went through basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, then landed in France on July 1 and after ten days reached the front lines, where he joined the 83rd Infantry Division as a replacement. On july 14, early in the morning, “we were being shelled and three of us were digging a foxhole. There was a burst above us and when I was wounded I thought, ‘Boy those other guys must be hurt badly because they’re bleeding all over me.’ It just felt as though their blood was running down over me. Apparently I went into shock right away.” The blood, of course, was his. He had been hit in the head, the back and the arm, and he had a collapsed lung. He was taken to a field hospital and then on July 28 he was in England after his first plane ride–pressed against the ceiling on a stretcher. His family was convinced that the seriousness of his injuries–he still carries several pieces of shrapnel–would send him home. But after four months of recuperation, he was sent back to Germany in time for the Battle of the Bulge. One advantage of the awful cold they experienced, he said, was that at least the dead people and animals didn’t rot and stink as they did in the summer. They simply froze. He slept under tanks, attacked and defended houses and other buildings, and otherwise went through hell. During one skirmish in a forest, he says, “Every time you walked around a tree you thought somebody had you in their sights, and that’s pretty unnerving.” He is one of the biggest influences on my life and outlook, and we still hang out together when we can. Happy Birthday, Leo.
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