Bob CollinsWe’re suckers for tales of the Greatest Generation, and, apparently, so are the 5.5 million other people who’ve been delighted this week by the video of Ernie Thompson, 98, a World War II veteran who served on some famous ships during the war. A group of Navy petty officer candidates marched to his house in Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
War
It’s unlikely that Joe Marcella and Leonard Pylka, Iron Rangers by pedigree, wanted to be the last two of their group of 92 veterans, a distinction that allowed them to taste the cognac on Saturday that they bought upon their return from World War II. Read more →
A woman who knows something about the worldwide impact of the picture of a child in war is worried that this picture is going to prolong the agony. Read more →
We are told today that this image of a little boy, hurt in the civil war that has leveled Aleppo in Syria, is shocking the world. Now what? Read more →
Everything you want to know about what it’s like to be a father you can find in the expression of Chuck Van Gordon, who was at Detroit’s Comerica Field last night when a video message from his daughter, Melissa, was played on the video board. Read more →
You may remember the story of Myles Eckert, the 8-year-old who found $20 and gave it to a soldier eating at a Cracker Barrel because he reminded Myles of his father, who was killed in Iraq five weeks after Myles was born. Here’s an update. Read more →
You’ll probably see more of this picture in newspapers and on websites. It’s the headstone of the soldier whose parents have been criticized by Donald Trump. You won’t hear the story of the soldier on whose grave the photographers trampled to get it. You should. Read more →
Hans Wronka, the Duluth man who set out in July to find the airplane in which his grandfather died in World War II, has discovered dog tags in a hay stack. Read more →
In two weeks, a couple hundred volunteers and the grandson of P-47 Thunderbolt pilot killed during a raid on German troops in Italy in World War II will try to unearth what’s left of the plane and, possibly, the pilot’s remains near Bagnarola, Italy. Read more →
The Chilcot Report, Britain’s investigation into the Iraq War, was released this morning, and it’s too big for reporters at The Guardian to go through alone. Read more →
Future alien archaeologists who discover Earth and try to figure out the civilization that once roamed it will have a thankless job.
How can you explain the civilization, based only on the just-completed 24 hours let alone centuries of existence.
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The New York Times today looks at the country’s welcoming tone, and its potential pitfalls, following up on how some of the refugees are doing. Read more →
David Thatcher has died. He was an engineer and tail gunner on the seventh B-25 in the group. His son posted on Facebook that his father suffered a stroke on Sunday afternoon and died this morning. Read more →
My profound sense of sadness on news of his death mirrors the profound sense of sadness I had about his life: specifically, the treatment he received because opposed the war in Vietnam.
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Vietnam didn’t get Gary Bipes, of Hector,Minn. The CIA didn’t get Bipes. And a knoll in a farmer’s field in Glencoe didn’t get Bipes. Mosquitoes almost did. Read more →