May 25, 1945

“Where do we find such men”?

The line is from the last scene of The Bridges of Toko-Ri

Of course the Naval Aviator is dead.

Of course he has a wife and children

Of course the Admiral sits stoically.

Of course the ship sails on.

I have been writing since 1997 about the death of Corporal Leonard Putnam

“who died in the service of his country on May 25, 1945 in the Pacific area”

He was 42 year old  piano salesman form Jersey City, NJ who had the upper right quadrant of his torso blown off by a Japanese mortar shell. The “Pacific area” mentioned in the Presidential scroll was Okinawa.

He was my wife Amy’s great uncle. He and his wife Millie had no children. As long as I write about him “he lives in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men”.

When he was killed the United States and the United Kingdom were taking 1,000 casualties a day.

“Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o’er,

Sleep the sleep that needs no breaking;

….

Huntsman, rest! Thy chase is done,

Think not of the rising sun,

For at dawning to assail ye,

Here no bugles sound reveille.”

Paul Fussell was an American infantry officer in Europe in the spring of 1945. He got what he thought was a “$1,000,000 wound”. It knocked him down, it made him bleed, it did not maim him, it got him a few months in a hospital in England, and, most importantly, it got him  a ticket home. As an officer he got decent accommodations and good chow. Only the ship didn’t go home. It went through the Panama Canal and was heading straight to Okinawa, a place made peaceful by Corporal Leonard Putnam. It was to be the forward staging area for Operation Olympic Coronet, the invasion of Japan. The blood calculus was estimated at 1,000,000 American casualties. 1,000,000.

In the middle of August, 1945 the ship he was on made a 180 degree turn in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Captain got on the PA system and said that the war was over. Something called the Atomic Bomb had ended it.

Bushido bullshit notwithstanding, it came down, as it always does, to how many Corporal Putnams were willing to go “once more into the breach” and end it. It also helps if you have a bigger gun. Perhaps if August 6, 1945 and August 9, 1945 were just 2 more war days a nephew of Lieutenant Fussell would be writing a remembrance of him. They weren’t. Because they weren’t he got to write a book titled “Thank God for the Atomic Bomb”.

I write this several days before the President of the United States speaks at Hiroshima. If he apologizes, however artfully, he will be pissing on Corporal Putnam’s grave.

The childless piano salesman “stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that freedom might live, and grow, and increase its blessings. Freedom lives and through it he lives – in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men”

His life must be remembered; his death honored: his memory preserved.

God Bless Corporal Putnam!

A grateful nation thanks him

Raise a glass

He came home on his shield.

May 25, 2016

Kevin Smith

WAQRRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET

PS – Six decades after the movie was made, Grace Kelly, the widow of Lieutenant Brubaker, is still spectacular.