French society 'Les Fleurs de la Memoire' adopts graves of fallen American servicemen

French heritage group members honor John Paul Hurdle's grave

    A couple of years ago I got a call from a lady up in Missouri who had visited Normandy on or around the D-Day anniversary. She saw some people in uniform paying honor to one of the graves so she took some photographs. She then returned home and tried to find some relatives of the deceased soldier.
    The soldier’s grave being honored was that of my uncle, John Paul Hurdle, who died when his plane was shot down in the run-up to D-Day. The lady who took the photos found me I think through my postings on Ancestry.com. In any event, she called me and shared the story and the photos with me.
    It seems the men in uniform honoring the memory of various fallen soldiers were members of an organization called Les Fleurs de la Memoire, or Flowers of Memory, which encourages individuals or families to adopt the grave of an American solider and honor it with the placement of flowers, since this can’t be done by their own families. NPR has a story on this organization back in 2008.
    I found a website called “Together We Served” that had all of the details of Uncle Paul’s military service. It’s pretty interesting. They have done a lot of work to put this information together for so many soldiers.
    Three or four years after the war, one or more of the crew members from Uncle Paul's plane made a courtesy call on my grandparents and told of the events on the day Paul died. They said their plane's engines were knocked out and that everyone bailed out of the plane, with Paul being one of the last to leave. He was shot while in the air parachuting to the ground.
    Russell Gray Houston told me an interesting story about the day the news arrived of Paul's death. He said he was good friends with the son of the manager of the telegraph office and was in the office the day the telegram arrived. The manager called my grandfather and told him he was delivering a telegram about Paul and that it was bad news. The kids rode with him to my grandparent's house and my grandfather was on the front porch crying when the telegram was delivered.
    As we remember our veterans, living and dead, let us share some gratitude to these kind and patriotic French citizens who are honoring our dead servicemen who never came home.

This photo was always in my grandparent's living room

   

John Paul Hurdle is fourth from left

In unarmed societies genocide is the rule, not the exception

Countries where victims of genocides of 100,000 or more lived are colored in red.

    Shown above is a world map with all of the countries of the world that have experienced a genocide of 100,000 or more since 1900 shown in red. Death estimates vary, but many estimate genocide deaths of the 20th Century at more than 150 million. Most of these victims did not own guns.
    Not included in this map are countries where smaller genocides have taken place. If they were added the map would be mostly red.
    What countries should be shown is a matter of debate, and some of the countries had multiple genocides. Included in this number are those sent to die in work or concentration camps.
    It should be noted that estimates of total dead vary widely. The number of dead in Congo, for example, is based on the decrease in population, which is subject to debate. Here’s a link to a Wikipedia page showing the list of genocides by death toll, as well as another list I used in creating this map. I'm sure I've failed to color in some countries which should have been included.
    Almost all of Europe is colored red because of the genocides of Adolf Hitler. But much of Europe, particularly the Balkans and the Soviet Union, earned genocide status without Hitler’s help.
    Now for a question to which I do not know a definitive answer: How many of these people would have died if their societies had been armed in the way that the citizenry of the United States is armed. My opinion is that most of them would have survived. Others may disagree, but this is the issue that we must agree on before we ever start discussing restrictions on gun ownership.
    But aren’t there more gun deaths in societies where the populace is armed? Yes there are, but there aren’t 150 million of them.
    During the fall of the Soviet Union that country’s leadership was at a crossroad where they couldn’t decide whether to bring down the boot of oppression ever harder or to release their grip and allow their citizens greater freedom. In the end greater freedom won out, but while the debate was going on they confiscated virtually every hunting gun in the country. They knew that it’s much harder to oppress an armed populace than an unarmed one.
    Citizen gun ownership is a prophylactic against tyranny and genocide. Those who say “It can’t happen here” need to take a good look at the map; genocide is the rule, not the exception. It can happen here, and if the liberals get there way, it likely will.

The horrors of war forged bonds that even jailhouse bars could not weaken

    Memorial Day has passed, and I suppose I'm a day late and a dollar short in sharing this story.
    My uncle, Danny Hurdle, served in the Pacific for most of World War II. He used to love to tell us about stealing a sack of apples and a large bag of sugar in order to make "Apple Jack." The sugar and apples were poured into some type of barrel in the woods and allowed to ferment. When Uncle Danny went out after a few days to sample his concoction, he discovered after taking a swig that he had stolen not a large bag of sugar, but of salt.
    But service in World War II was about a lot more than funny stories of failed attempts to make Apple Jack with salt. My dad said that if Uncle Danny had a few drinks he might mention his war service, and that often he would weep over the horrors that he and his friends endured.
    And these friendships did not end. I remember one war buddy from Pittsburgh visited Uncle Danny while I was a teen. He and his wife were kind of loud and Yankees with two capital Y's, if you could spell it that way. But Uncle Danny clearly loved his old friend.
    For whatever reason, Uncle Danny was assigned to a unit that was made up almost entirely of soldiers from Hillsboro, Ohio. In the late 1960s dad was going full-blast in the Ohio real estate market, and Uncle Danny was partners on a couple of deals around Hillsboro, Ohio.
    The man who was closest to Uncle Danny during the war was from Hillsboro, so naturally the first thing he did when he arrived in the county was to attempt to locate his old friend. And he did -- at the county jail. His friend was the town drunk, and spent most of his time in jail.
    And so, on each trip to Ohio, Uncle Danny spent a good bit of time at the county jail, visiting with his old friend. Uncle Danny wasn't worried about what people might say if they knew his good friend was in jail. And his friend was glad for the company.
    Wars are about great battles won or lost; we often hear tales of great bravery. But the real story of war is that of my Uncle Danny and his jailhouse friend, and tens of thousands of others just like it.