The Saga of the Last to Die...

[L Verge]

Wonderful words, and they apply today to the last of our WWII veterans as well as our Korean War and Viet Nam vets. For the past 4-5 years, Surratt House has participated in the national Blue Star Museums program where active and retired members of the armed services and up to five of their dependents receive free tours between Memorial Day and Labor Day. All they have to show is their current military ID card.

At first, we were told that the program was only for active duty members; however, being a military brat myself and having a father who served in WWII and Korea, I immediately stretched the rules to include regular retirees who had made the military their career. Those vets have so much history to tell with few people who want to listen - outside of their own comrades at the American Legion, the VFW, and other such organizations.

I watched Sixty Minutes last night and listened intently to a man who served as an American prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. His Jewish parents escaped Germany and came to America before the war, but he enlisted when our country entered WWII. After serving with a variety of forces, including a special unit under Patton, and surviving the Battle of the Bulge and D-Day, he served the trials after investigating and arresting members of the lower German echelon who had brutally participated in regional genocides on behalf of the Fuhrer.

This man is now 97 and still very active. He travels around the world forming defense groups who are fighting similar genocide programs that are still very active today. To listen to him talk and see the accompanying era photos was a wonderful history lesson for all who watched the program.