WW2 Vets: Let's Not Repeat the Mistake From the Great War Vets (In Lieu of My Usual Screed About Memorial Day)

Stickied for the day, newer posts follow..

(The usual screed)

You may remember Frank Buckles. He was the last living American doughboy from the First World War. When he passed away, eight years ago, there was a movement to have him lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda to honor all of the veterans of the War to End All Wars.

That request was denied by the then-Speaker of the House, John Boehner, in one of the pettiest political acts in modern memory.

We should not repeat that mistake. There should be a law that when the last living veteran of the Second World War goes west, whomever he or she happens to be, that person gets a state funeral, including lying in state in the Capitol, to honor the millions of men and women who served in the war. It should not be left to the whims of whatever gasbags are the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader at the time.

I once knew a man who was born in 1930 and who was a combat vet in the war. He had signed up when he was fourteen. When he wrote his father from boot camp to ask his dad's help in proving his that he was too young, his father wrote back: "Boy, you got yourself into this mess, you get yourself out of it." (He did, when he retired after thirty years of service.)

I've long ago forgotten his name. I don't know if he's alive. But there were probably other kids who did that. They answered the call at a time of great peril; the veterans of WW2 have richly earned such a final honor.

So we may have time to make sure that this honor is enshrined into law. But we shouldn't dawdle.