anthonysemone Offline Upload & Sell: On
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You can make book on his hands talking, Kent. How did you happen to make contact with him, just happenstance? How did you approach him? While I had my camera with me on day in local CVS, I saw this old guy, from a distance I saw an elderly gentleman, seemed to be favoring his right side, and he had a USMC ball cap on. I walked over another aisle, got a better look at the front of, and it indeed was inscribed USMC, Korean War Veteran, and then - and I thought I'd fall over, in smaller letters, the bottom line read "Frozen Chosin."
He had survived those 17 or so days of the most ungodly conceivable combat and weather and starvation conditions imaginable. I shook his hand, thanked him for his sacrifice and his commitment, his honor and his courage. He said, "Well, Marine, just like you,* I was only doing my job. The real heroes are all the ones who never came back so that I could." and, he had at least one tear at the corner of his eye. God Bless him for sure... near as I can figure, if my math is right , he'd've been 17 or so at the time. I didn't have the courage to ask him for a picture. My wife asked me when I got back to the car, why did I look like I had been crying.
I hope you get to take more pictures of him, Kent, and if you do, post em up.
*(I pushed papers in a Regimental Intelligence Section of the 3rd Marines eight years later on Okinawa and the closest I came to combat was escaping Shore Patrol out of a restricted area in Futenma. I won't add further details about why it was restricted. )
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