A Book

I thought I pretty much knew everything that is in my parents house but today they show me a book that I never saw before that was tucked way up in the front closet.  This book was printed after World War II and had photos of all the men and women who were from Holstein Iowa and served in the military during the war. My dad and his brothers had their own page.  What struck me was how many there were even though it was a small town.  Imagine just about every man being gone to war.  Imagine whole families of brothers off to other parts of the world.  Imagine a young boy born in the middle of America's farmland being buried on an island in the middle of the Pacific that no one had heard of until then.  Imagine those men in those horrible battles coming home and just being expected to return to their normal jobs.  I don't want to forget them.  I look at their photos and wonder what kind of men they were.  Were they good husbands, fathers, sons, brothers?  They were good citizens.  Were they gentlemen?  What stories did they keep with them for the rest of their lives?  So many faces smiling out from those old pictures.  They all had people who loved them.  They all lived in a time like no other.  We owe them our gratitude for their sacrifice.