Every time I sing “America“, I cry.  I can make it up to the verse of “land where my father’s died,” but by then the tears have filled the eyes and they will begin to flow.   Then I usually just have to hum the rest.  If I just listen, I feel emotional but don’t physically sob.  So, I can only imagine the emotions that swell up in a previous POW if a simple little civilian gets this emotional.

If you recently received my personal specials from the office, you would have seen my recommendation for the book, Unbroken, as a summer read.   Louis Zamperini’s story was amazing and so well documented.  As I mentioned in my email, my grandfather, Ray Goodson, was also a Japanese POW.  This book brought up a lot up stories that I remembered my grandfather sharing with me as a kid and young adult. Stories that did not makes sense to me.  I did not understand how people could be so mean to other people and why.    At the first camp Louis Zamperini arrived in, there was an officer from my grandfather’s ship, the USS Houston.  That made me go grab my grandfather’s memoirs to see if he had ever mentioned the same people or the locations.  He did not.  My grandfather “worked” in the coal mines and the Burma railroad but had described to me over the years the same amount of torture.  Like Mr.  Zamperini, my grandfather, and his WWII buddies were survivors.  All of their stories amaze me.  It’s a part of history that needs to be told and we need to be grateful for all of their sacrifices.

Unbroken, is being turned into a movie.  It is scheduled to be released on Christmas day!  That will be a great gift!  I cannot wait to see it.  Sadly enough, Mr.Zamperini died 2 days before the 4th of July.  I think that is quite appropriate.  He was such a inspiration for America! I wish he could have seen the movie , but that may have bee too difficult to watch.  Physically watching something may be too much.  Simply bringing up a memory and talking about it was hard enough according to my grandfather.

http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/040900/met_2719118.html

http://www.usshouston.net/stor/goodsonray/rgoodson.htm

Ray Goodson beloved grandfather and personal hero