Saturday May 12th. Visting Ben: A True War Veteran

Our visit with Ben was both a very humbling and entertaining experience. Ben was an 87 year old veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Through his service in the military he obtained his bachelor's degree from Boston University and later taught other students in the military around the world. On one hand his stories were very interesting and he was a very entertaining person to listen to. He would often break out into song when he thought about his childhood and teenage years in Great Britain. He also seemed to be a dictionary of Shakespeare and Kipling quotes and would often insert them in between conversations. His wife, a Korean woman who spoke english and cared for him through his dementia and other ailments, was also very hilarious as she managed to force us to eat several plates of bratwurst and plied us with beer. On the other hand I felt that many of Ben's stories of his experiences during the wars were quite chilling. He told us about how he served as a glider pilot during the invasion of Normandy during World War II and how he would descend towards the beach as we imagined him dodging enemy gunfire along the way. He also told us about his experience throughout the Korean War, which he described as the most difficult war he served in because of the harsh weather and lack of shelter on the Korean peninsula at the time. He offered a humbling perspective on life and had very strong opinions about his fellow comrades in the wars. In his opinion, he was often frustrated with his fellow soldiers who wound up in poverty or homeless after they came back after the war. His argument was that the military offered people the opportunity to "pick themselves up by their bootstraps," either by funding their college educations with G.I. bills, or by offering opportunities to either work in the army or become a high ranking officer later in their careers. His stories were enlightening; they put to shame the common complaints of young individuals such as the high jobless rate in the U.S. or the mandatory military service in Korea. While these current complaints are often valid and are surely problems that many young people face, they pale in comparison to the conditions and obstacles such as war and famine that our ancestors had to face only a few decades ago. Overall, our conversation with Ben and his wife turned out to be a rewarding and thought-provoking experience and we felt honored to meet with such an accomplished man before his stories were lost to history.