American veterans don’t just secure freedom for Americans.
At the end of World War II, my family (both sets of grandparents), were forced to hide, starving, from British bombs and retreating Nazi soldiers, in railroad tunnels under San Marino in Italy, with thousands of others including many Italian Jews who escaped into San Marino for safety. They were liberated by American forces, and those encounters with American soldiers eventually convinced them to cross the pond, when things got rough and a post-War response to Facism left Italy momentarily convinced that Communism was a fantastic way of life. I would probably be herding goats on a mountainside right now were it not for a couple of American GIs who shared their cigarettes and chocolate chip cookies with the starving citizens of a tiny, 36-square mile republic in the middle of Emilia Romangna.
So thanks, guys. I wouldn’t be an American without you.
