My father, James Loyd McCaffrey, was a WWII veteran. We buried him on Memorial Day 2012, and I have been thinking of him a lot this week. He joined the army two weeks after turning 17. His dad was in poor health, and the family needed the $93 dollars the government would send them every month of his service. That was a substantial amount to a farm family in 1945. So he told the recruitment officer he was 18 and went to Europe.

When Germany surrendered he had the incredible experience of helping to return Polish families to their homeland. They had been enslaved by the Nazis at the beginning of the war and spent a decade in “work camps” in Germany. They had been fed just enough to survive and perform the required labor. Upon crossing the border into Poland they “kissed the ground and praised God” for bringing them back home. Heady stuff for a south Mississippi teenager.

The President’s trip to Japan this week has reminded me of another family member. Richard McCaffery was an admired older cousin of Daddy’s. He was old enough to “join up” right after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He served in the South Pacific. He survived the Bataan Death March. He died of starvation in a Japanese POW camp. Daddy cried when he told Richard’s story.

Most families have similar stories, and they should be remembered and told to our grandchildren ­— not to foster hatred and division, but to serve as an example and a warning. We humans are capable of good and evil. The grace of our God gives us the ability to choose between the two.

 

Janie West