A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO WWII VETERANS

Genesis 6:4 says in part: "There were giants in the earth in those days ... mighty men which were of old, men of renown."

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

On this Memorial Day, it's fitting that we Americans pay special tribute to the men and women who gave their lives while serving in America's armed forces during that war.

Most of them were born during the Roaring '20s. They endured the Great Depression, learned the value of honest, hard work, and took to heart the blessings of living in a free nation.

When the war came, they gave up the joys of youth for the sake of their country, trading the comforts of home for the horrors of the battlefield. They left a peaceful civilian life for a dangerous, uncertain future in uniform.

Newspaper columnist Kathleen Krog of the Miami Herald wrote recently about her father, a World War II veteran. She said: "A photograph of my father taken in 1942 graces my desk at home. He is wearing an Army Air Corps uniform and looks wonderfully wholesome, in the classic way that photographs of young men in World War II uniforms look in retrospect."

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the kind of picture she's talking about. What is it about those old photos? Why do the servicemen and women in them look so wholesome, so full of character, so much bigger than life?

I believe it's because our World War II veterans are giants.

They are the men and women who saved America and the free world from absolute, certain destruction.

Krog says in her column that she can't imagine what the world will be like some day without her father, whom she describes as her "personal hero."

On this Memorial Day, I hope that Americans across this nation will pause to pay tribute not only to those who died in service, but to their friends and relatives -- their personal heroes -- who served in World War II.

They fought and defeated the most brutal, ruthless and determined enemies the world has ever known.

In some circles today it's popular to portray the free world's enemies in World War II as morally equivalent to American and her allies.

It became apparent last year, for example, that the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., had become mired in such thought.

The Smithsonian was planning to display, in a less than favorable light, the Enola Gay -- the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb and helped bring the war to a swift conclusion.

As national commander of The American Legion, I'm proud to say that my organization took the lead in the fight to set history straight on the Enola Gay issue.

The Legion's efforts contributed to the Smithsonian's decision this year to display the Enola Gay without the clutter of revisionist history -- a twisted lie that sought to portray America as the racist aggressor and Japan as the righteous defender of its culture and homeland.

The truth is that America was the defender of peace and freedom in World War II. Our war effort was completely honorable and totally moral.

Reflecting on the virtues of the American man-at-arms, Gen. Douglas MacArthur once said: "He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements."

MacArthur was right, of course. The generations that have come up since World War II are the fortunate heirs to a great civilization whose fate hung in the balance just 50 years ago.

We are extremely fortunate that when the time came for service, when the day called for courage, and when the hour required sacrifice, a generation of Americans -- chosen of God or fate -- stepped forward to save our country and the other free nations of the world.

On Memorial Day, as we remember the Americans who gave their lives so that you and I may continue to live in peace and freedom, there can be no doubt about the valor of those who rest in our nation's cemeteries at home and abroad.

There are, indeed, giants in the earth.

William M. Detweiler is national commander of The American Legion.