Tomorrow is Nov. 11, Veterans’ Day. It’s the special day when all Americans honor our brave servicemen and women for their service to our country. If it were not for them, America would not be the wonderful and free country that we live in and enjoy today.
My family lost two brave men during World War II as they defended America; two of my uncles, Lt. Francis Daniel Stegna and Lt. James Krispinsky. Both were pilots of aircraft. Both were killed while saving other men’s lives and both were only 25 years old.
At my present age of 53, over twice the age of my uncles when they died, I can’t help but feel humbled and also a great sense of loss. Even though my two uncles died 13 years before I was even born, I heard a lot about them as I grew up.
That family history has become very meaningful to me as I’ve aged and mellowed. I came to realize how incredibly lucky I am, and how good we’ve got it here in America because of these sacrifices of the “Greatest Generation.”
Because of their deaths at such an early age, my two uncles never got to enjoy all of the aspects of life that you and I enjoy every single day. They’ve lost 67 birthdays. They never got the chance to get married. They never had children or grandchildren, no anniversaries, no holidays, no exciting careers, no cutting the grass on a sunny Saturday afternoon. They never saw an American astronaut named Neil Armstrong walk on the moon for the first time in human history and they never got the chance to feel their victory over tyranny for our precious America.
When I look at the pre-war pictures of my Uncle Francis, he is always smiling and almost always in a bathing suit – with a beautiful girl under each arm. He was so handsome with his blue eyes and curly blond hair. In 1941, he was attending college at Miami (Ohio) University, studying to be an electrical engineer.
He was so advanced in his electronics studies that he designed and built AM and short wave radios from scratch. He was also in the Catholic club, the photography club, he played the saxophone, and he was an accomplished aircraft pilot, all during the Great Depression.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he left college and instantly enlisted in the United States Air Corps. He was killed in 1943.
When I was a little boy in the 1960s, there was a beautiful, sepia-toned photograph of my Uncle Jimmy on my grandparent’s fireplace mantle in their living room. It was in that very living room that I often heard my grandparents mention the name Mary McGary in conversations. Being a kid, I never thought to ask who she was back then. I just assumed that she was a friend of my Grandma Jo’s from her ladies club.
Just last year though, another uncle of mine, Col. Thomas J. Dalzell U.S.M.C. (Ret.) informed me that Mary McGary was actually engaged to my Uncle Jimmy Krispinsky. After Jimmy’s death in 1944 and for the rest of her life, Mary kept in close contact with my grandparents and my great-grandmother. She never married. Isn’t that sad? It seems that every year the loss gets bigger.
When I look at those old photos of Uncle Francis and Uncle Jimmy, I can see and feel their youthful aspirations and the unlimited potential on their young faces. I always wonder what might have been.
My uncles, Francis and Jimmy, have also lost 67 years of celebrating Veterans’ Day and having young people come up to them, look them in the eye and say, “Thank you for your service to our country.”
So, in their memory, I never hesitate to thank any service man or woman when I see a “Veteran” license plate on their car or their veteran status or service branch displayed on their ball cap.
Thank you brave veterans past and present. God bless you and God bless America.
(Lawrence E. Stegna Jr. lives in Walpole.)
