Everyone my father was named Vasco L. Walters. He served in the US Army from 1940-1946. He bravely fought the Nazis in France, Belgium, Germany and into what is now the Czech Republic.
My late Uncle was named Hubert Noel Ballew. He bravely fought the Nazis as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force from 1940-1942 and the US Army Air Force from 1943-1944 when he was shot down in France and became a Nazi POW.
Let me not forget, also, my late uncle John Robert Helms who served in the US Army Air Corps from 1942-1946. He flew a B-17 and survived his 26 missions over the best-defended targets in Nazi Germany.
If you were at a party and met these three men, you would find them to be warm, friendly, and decent people. You would never hear them brag about their war exploits. You would never hear them boast about their courage in battle. You would never hear them feel sorry for themselves about the sacrifices and hardships they endured fighting Nazi tyranny.
My dear friends, all these men were from the south of the U.S. In all the years that I was privileged to be around them, I never heard one of them utter a hateful or a racist comment. In fact, all of them treated every man and woman decently regardless of their color.
If they were alive today, they would be heart broken, as I am, over what happened in Charlottesville on Saturday.
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