Have we forgotten already?

The HBO mini series “Band of Brothers” has many poignant statements and images about Paratroopers and their experiences in WWII. Some are from the real men who fought the Germans in the war, others are recreations.

Near the end of one episode, Private David Kenyan Webster (Webster was a member of E Company, 506th Regiment of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division) talks over the scene of Easy Company moving out of Haguenau, France in February 1945 toward their next objective. He says:

“I wonder if people back home would ever know what it cost the soldiers to win this war. In America, things were already beginning to look like peacetime. The standard of living was on the rise, race tracks and night clubs were booming, you couldn’t get a hotel room in Miami beach it was so crowded. How could anyone ever know the price paid by soldiers, in terror agony and bloodshed, if they’d never been to places like Normandy, Bastogne, or Haguenau?”

This sentiment is as true then as it is today. In just 5 years many Americans have forgotten the lessons we “learned” on September 11th. Our brave men and women have fought, bled and died for our freedoms. Not only those on the front lines but those back home as well have paid a high price. Let us never forget them and what they have given all of us.