May 25, 1945 - May 25, 2011

MAY 25, 1945
MAY 25, 2011


The line that began with Joshua, the line of men who fought for freedom without even knowing what it meant, the line that ran through Thermopylae and Tours, Lepanto and Trafalgar, the Alamo and Shiloh, Leyte and Afghanistan, the line with names like Leonidas and Martel, Cervantes and Nelson, Crockett and Grant, Evans and Murphy has never wavered.

Corporal Leonard Putnam, a 42 year old piano salesman from Jersey City, added his name “to the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that freedom might live, and grow, and increase its blessings”. That’s what it says on the scroll signed by President Harry Truman. He died “in the Pacific area”, Okinawa to be precise.

The long gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so,
A million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray,
Would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words:

DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY

Douglas MacArthur spoke of the profession that he knew and loved. The call to duty from Horatius still resounds:

“To every man upon the earth
Death come soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his Gods.”

A young soldier, Joe Tierney by name, just completed his basic training at Fort Benning, GA. He has been assigned to Fort Lewis, WA. Corporal Putnam was his grandmother’s great uncle.

There is a marvelous scene in “The Bridges of Toko-Ri” where the Admiral asks his aide “Where do we find such men?”

God bless Corporal Putnam!
God protect Private Tierney!




KS