I‘m reading two books right now.
Recommended Stories
“Ghost Soldiers” is the story of the newly formed, elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion, which walked fully 30 miles behind enemy lines in 1945 to get to a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines and liberate hundreds of their comrades. The Japanese, feeling the tide turn on their war effort, had in desperation begun to slaughter POWs, dousing them with jet fuel and setting them on fire, systematically beheading them with sabers, and disemboweling them with bayonets.
When the Rangers were given a chance to rescue one camp of such men, who had already survived the Bataan Death March, they took it on despite the odds. No one knew of their mission, so they were just as wary of friendly fire as stumbling upon a group of Japanese soldiers or even one Filipino villager with Japanese sympathies. Once upon the camp, known as Cabanatuan, they found it was not a sparsely guarded POW camp, but had become a waystation for thousands of retreating Japanese forces. Led by Henry Mucci, who was known as “Little MacArthur,” they managed to shuttle hundreds of starved, sick, beaten American and Filipino prisoners to safety, evading the Japanese Army as they went.
I’m only halfway through, so I’m not clear on all the details yet, but I have no doubt these brave Americans of long ago will continue to amaze throughout their story of unlikely heroism.
I’m also reading “Men At Work,” George Will’s paean to the American pastime. It’s an in-depth, funny, warm analysis of the roles of baseball’s many characters in creating the nation’s favorite game, written with as much affection as acumen. Will wishes to communicate, and does so effectively, that baseball is not a simple game. But the game is a simple pleasure.
And, in reading both books this week– one about grimy, young, determined soldiers hiking their way into American history, and another about beefy ballplayers hacking their way into American hearts– it crystallized the fact that one kind of American hero allows for the other. Themen of Cabanatuan and the men who rescued them stood on the wall, faced death to preserve life and liberty. And, I’d wager that many of them, while trudging through the wet undergrowth of a foreign nation or facing the beatings of their captors, kept themselves going by dreaming of a baseball diamond, a beer, a hotdog, and a girl.
So, enjoy the simple pleasures today. They are not trivial. They are the result of a freedom worth defending that, in turn, creates men and women worthy of defending it. The lives we enjoy in America, sometimes without appreciating them, are beyond the reach of most of humanity and have been throughout most of history. It is because of men like the “Ghost Soldiers” that the “Men at Work” are able to do their jobs, and we are able to be thankful for both.
What a great country. Celebrate your freedom today.
