Today I Remember, Today I Honor

One really cool thing about living in Macon is that my family has been here forever. Really, forever. Like… 1850’s forever.

And when that happens, people remember your family. There’s all kinds of stories about my grandfather floating around.

But what I treasure most is a framed letter of recommendation that former Senator Oliver Bateman wrote for me when I applied to intern for Senator Saxby Chambliss. I’ll never forget- saying my grandfather’s sense of unflagging courage and humor is what got him through over a year of being a POW at Stalag 17.

My grandfather only spoke of the funny things of war. Of playing pranks on the Nazis. But I know there had to have been much suffering.

I’m just sad I didn’t know my father’s father very well. I was so little when he passed.

And I wished I knew Herndon Inge of Mobile, Alabama. Whenever I Google items about World War II his name appears high on the list. He’s some kind of blood kin to me, as everyone from Mobile with that last name is, and that’s my grandmother’s family (on my dad’s side): “During World War II, he was an Infantry lieutenant and platoon leader in the 94th Infantry Division in General George Patton’s famous Third Army and participated in the Normandy, Brittany, Andennes and Central Europe campaigns. He was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and spent three months as a German prisoner of War.” (From AL.com)

There are so many others who I wish I could honor, men and women serving right now, those who have passed, those who served in war and peacetime.

Today I will remember them and say a prayer for them and their families.