Memorial Day weekend

Let me clarify something. Our president asking us to honor the fallen in Japan in WW2 along with our troops is the equivalent of Ryan Howard toasting both sides of the Iraq war while it was still happening, in “The Office”. It is disgusting, and on “The Office” was done in jest to show just how much of an inconsiderate dick Ryan Howard was. We get it, you hate America. Moving on, your act is tired.

Memorial Day weekend has become a happy time for the millennial generation because most are not having to deal with the horrors and casualties of the wars we (US) have fought. I like to hope that freedom, and the fruits of those losses are what is being celebrated. (I’ll take my rose-colored glasses off next week.)

That does not mean that the service men and women are not respected. In fact for me, it is the extreme opposite. Those people are heroes, and because of that, I am going to use this post to celebrate a US Marine and WW2 veteran, William “Bill” Hart.

Bill was not the type to talk your ear off. I liked that a lot about him. I thought it was cool that he didn’t feel the need to speak all the time. When he did speak, you listened. I was relatively young when my grandfather passed. I was on the tail end of innocence, and for most of my life didn’t need to hear the horror stories, but I got some highlights.

One story was, because his beard didn’t come in that thick at the time (he was a young man then), he figured he could go a day without shaving. When his sergeant noticed this, he asked him if he shaved, and when Bill explained his reasoning, the sergeant told Bill to shave. The sergeant then took Bill’s shaving cup (for the shaving cream), filled it with sand and mixed in some water. He made my grandfather shave with the sand. Bill laughed when he told me how he had cuts all over his face.

The second story, Bill was sleeping outside in the jungle. He woke up to see a land mine, which had been thrown down on his camp from a helicopter but never detonated. It was a foot and a half away from his face. If I remember correctly, he didn’t require coffee or any type of caffeine for a full five days after the incident.

I’m sure there were way worse stories, buy why tell them to a kid? Bill survived the war and became the police chief of Kearny, New Jersey. He remained a man of principal until his last day. He was a hero, but he didn’t have the incessant need to be recognized. He deserves to be celebrated.

Buzzkill New Jersey would like to thank all those who paid the ultimate price. We will proudly represent the country our service members fought and died for.

America is the best country in the world because it stands for freedom for its citizens. This protection is given to us by our armed forces, who sign on the line and put-up, to keep us free people.