Veteran's Day

Today we honor our military veterans past and present, their sense of duty, selflessness, honor and sacrifice the driving force that has made these United States the greatest nation on earth.

To each and every one of our veterans we owe a debt of gratitude, without question, for their dedication to preserving our freedoms; though this day is celebrated in honor of them, every day should be Veteran's Day. We should ever be thankful that these men and women served or are serving in order that we may live in freedom.

I am deeply honored to write the stories of our patriot heroes, those who served during the Second World War, Korea and Vietnam, but let us not forget those today who are serving in places such as Forward Operating Base Delaram in Afghanistan, or those aboard ships at sea such as the USS Farragut, or those providing air cover to troops on the ground from Bagram Air Base...volunteers, every one of them.

Words feebly express the profound sense of gratitude and respect I have for our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, but to each, past and present, I say THANK YOU.

SUCCESS

SUCCESS. I've located contact info for one of the McArthur brothers' sons, the Bennettsvile, SC WW II veterans who wrote well in excess of a hundred letters home to their mother before, during and after the war; and that's only the ones that were recovered by Trina Browning-Niznik. I have no doubt there were many more.

One, Laurin McArthur II, was a Lt. Commander in the US Navy and served aboard the USS Daly. Laurin won a Bronze Star for his destroyer's action during the sea battle of Surigao Straights in the Philippines, during which the Daly was struck amidship by a kamikaze plane. Laurin died in April of 2010.

James D. McArthur retired from the US Army as a Colonel, his career beginning with the 263rd Coast Artillery at Fort Moultrie, SC in 1939. He wound up as an artillery instructor for the Army, serving in Texas among other places, and retired after serving in Vietnam. I'm still working to complete his timeline. James died in

1992.

I read some of the letters but had to stop; it just seemed too 'voyeuristic', an intrusion of sorts into lives past. Those treasures belong to the families of these patriots, not me, and I will be calling Mr. McArthur in the morning to make arrangements to return the family's history.

One other item i didn't include a picture of yesterday is the WW II Victory medal that was in the bag Trina gave me. Though there's no way to tell which brother it belonged to, I am assuming they both would have received one. I'll provide a follow-up after I speak to Mr. McArthur tomorrow, if all goes as planned.