The debt we owe those who have gone before us

As Americans, we all live in a reality where we owe a great debt to the multitudes of our countrymen who have gone before us and worked and sacrificed to secure and protect the rights and freedoms we enjoy as Americans.

I think of my own parents. My father graduated from high school in 1940 and enlisted in the United States Navy. Consequently, he was at Pearl Harbor, the Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, and Midway before he was 21 years of age. He survived the sinking of his ship, was involved in 13 sea battles, saw MacArthur wade ashore in the Philippines, and was in Tokyo Bay when the surrender was signed on the USS Missouri.

He then came home at the age of 24 (based on photos he looked older), became a welder, and started a family with me as his first progeny. I grew up in a neighborhood in Houston where virtually all our fathers had been in some form of military service during World War II. Most often we didn’t ask our friends, “What does your Daddy do?” but “What was your Daddy in?”

We owe that generation an incalculable debt for the sacrifice of their youth and often much more. My dad had some horrific experiences, especially involving the sinking of his ship, experiences he would not talk about until I was an adult.

These Americans did their duty to ensure we could live our lives in freedom. Many in the generations since have suffered great hardship, or even death, to continue to defend our great freedoms as Americans.

I was reminded once again of those sacrifices as I was reading the most recent issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly (September 2024). Princeton does a great job of keeping connections with its alumni (of which I am one, Class of 1969). Since graduation, the closest I have lived in physical proximity is 878 miles (Nashville), but I have been to several reunions (along with approximately 40% of my classmates for our 50th reunion).

In the current Princeton Alumni Weekly, there is a story in the “Class Notes” saying an appreciative farewell to the Class of 1937 since its last surviving member, Dr. Joseph Schein, M.D. died during the 2024 reunions this past May at the age of 109.

Dr. Schein’s obituary explained that one of his duties as an undergraduate was to accompany Albert Einstein to Shabbat every Friday night. What an example of the unique opportunities presented when one resides on the Princeton campus. For instance, while I was an undergraduate, I had the opportunity to meet both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

One of my classmates, Brooke Stoddard, whose father was in the Class of ’37, wrote a moving tribute to the class. “The class arrived 618 strong in Princeton in September 1933 one month ahead of Albert Einstein.”

They graduated in 1937 and war came on December 7, 1941. As Brooke put it,

“Classmates had to put aside their budding careers to defeat fascism around the globe. Some 84% of the class served in some kind of military role, most of the remainder in ‘essential occupations.’ Average service was 45 months or 1500 person years. Military awards to classmates included 20 Purple Hearts, two Navy Crosses, four Legions of Merit, nine Distinguished Flying Crosses, 10 Silver Stars, 60 Bronze Stars, and 22 Air Medals….Classmates included one colonel, 26 lieutenant colonels, one Navy commander, and 30 lieutenant commanders. Six classmates gave their lives during the conflict.”

I can think of no better tribute to the Princeton motto of “Princeton in the nation’s service.” The Class of ‘37’s record of service was indeed extraordinary, but in reality, their whole generation’s service was extraordinary.

All of us who have benefitted from their service have an obligation to “play it forward” in protecting and defending the freedoms they entrusted to us and to pass them on to our children and grandchildren undiminished and untarnished.