Good Morning.

Pondering those family veterans of mine today.


I finally finished my summer reading yesterday. Yeah, I know - December.

But the weather has been so bad around here all year, there were limited opportunities to sit out back by the fire with a smoke, some bourbon, and my book. This year, I re-visited one of my many WWII volumes. Given my lifelong interest in the conflict, some of these are 'old friends' and I peruse the maps and photos every now and again.

In any case - we reached the end of the war. The allies still won.

The last two chapters were an overview of the campaign in the Philippines, and on to Iwo and Okinawa before the final cataclysm over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Some of my relatives fought there. Two of which, I was fortunate enough to hear first-hand stories from their own mouths. Now deceased, I have spoken repeatedly of my Great-Uncle Ray Moore in this space. He was involved in the battles around Leyte in 1944.

But another uncle, Fiorindo DiGianvittorio (Grandpa's brother) drove a landing craft at Okinawa.

A titanic battle, much harder than the US forces thought it would be. Just reading about some of the things remains interesting to me.

Your mileage may vary, but after finishing the book yesterday, I did think about what my forebears had done. I won't make the comparisons to today's rise of fascism in these United States. Surely, any of our ancestors who fought actual Nazis and fascism are increasing their rpms even as I type this.