Memorial Day 2008

[Walt's Daughter]

Sent to me by James Bird - 45th Inf Div

Bill Mauldin wrote in his book. The Brass Ring about the 1945 Memorial Day ceremony at Anzio-Nettuno Cemetery.

 

Mauldin told how General Lucian Truscott turned his back on visitors and VIPs and spoke to the dead. He apologized to the dead for their presence here. He said everybody tells leaders it is not their fault that men get killed in war, but that every leader knows in his own heart this is not altogether true. He said he hoped everybody here [deceased veterans] through any mistake of his would forgive Him. but he realized that was asking a hell of a lot under the circumstances. Truscott did say he would not speak about the glorious dead because he didn’t see much glory in getting killed in you late teens or early twenties. He promised that if in the future he ran into anybody, especially old men, who though death in battle was glorious, he would straighten them out. He said he thought that was the least he could do.