Saturday, December 11, 2010

About Letter 280


In this extraordinary letter Bill gives Mudder and Dad a "dose of my philosophy" regarding post war politics and economics. He also discusses with some shame and disgust "a lot of things I've seen and done in this war that I've never mentioned to you because I thought that you'd rather not hear about them.

4 comments:

  1. That is good reflection about war and life, remarkable. We are all humans, simple as that.

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  2. I am struck by Bill's level of compassion and affinity for the German people. He has done a great deal of living in the 2+ years since he was inducted into the army. At 19 years of age he seems to be remarkably mature and balanced in his outlook toward life. As I remember my father it seemed to me that he was not bitter about the war or his sworn enemy. It was just something he had to do.

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  3. This was a great letter Greg...It was full of a lot of personal and profound reflections. And you're right, that's a lot of living for a young man in 2+ years.

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  4. Hi Elizabeth. Naturally, being Bill's son and first born child I am profoundly affected by this letter. I sometimes wonder what I would have done had I faced the situations with which he was confronted. I rather think that "the apple does not fall far from the tree" and that I would act in a similar manner. Of course, one can only speculate about such things

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