While the scenery and combat footage were graphically and realistically portrayed, the language and sex talk left me a little unsettled. As a veteran of Vietnam, I can personally attest to the use of profanity during my tour there.
This is not something I am proud of, it was simply the lingua franca of that war.
While viewing “The Pacific” for the 10 weeks that it aired, I could not help but think of the WWII veterans watching these programs with their children and/or grandchildren, and sitting uneasily in their chairs watching the graphic sex scenes or listening to the profanity, especially the use of the f-word, over and over and over again.
I just could not imagine my father, or any WWII veterans I have come to know personally, speaking that way, that often.
Was Hollywood interjecting their modern-day vernacular into the speech of post-Depression era servicemen and women?
Is it their assumption that my father’s generation was no different in their language and behavior than the Hollywood crowd?
Earl Morse, the founder of Honor Flight, is a good friend of mine and I knew he had recently taken some WWII Pacific veterans to Washington D.C. by invitation, where they met Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg for a special viewing of “The Pacific.”
As I spoke about my reservations about the series, Earl looked at me and said, “Now that’s interesting, because when we came out of the viewing, I asked the veterans for their opinion of the video.” Earl told me the men said that the scenery and the combat scenes were pretty much as they remembered them, but that when it came to the language, they said, “...but we didn’t talk like that.”
Earl went on to tell me that some of the veterans were a bit upset with the way they were portrayed using that kind of language, and told him, “We were mostly just farm boys coming out of the Depression, and we never used the f-word like that and we never disrespected women by using bad language around them.”
This aroused my curiosity, so I sent e-mails asking veterans, and folks who knew veterans, if they had any thoughts on the language of that generation.
I received many replies that seemed to confirm what I had heard and reinforced what Earl Morse told me that day. Though it does not surprise me, it has made me even more proud of these men and women of “the greatest generation.”
Randy Ark
Springfield
VFW teaches us meaning of honor
After reading bad news in newspapers and seeing crime and worse on TV news, it is easy to believe that America no longer has honorable people.
Yet we have only to look at a small town in our area to see that not only are honorable people there, but also that these people continue to sacrifice and give so that others may more fully enjoy being American. Post 8437 of the VFW in Enon works tirelessly throughout the year to give the entire area a spectacular fireworks display.
This is but one of their gifts to the community, but it is one that almost everyone enjoys. Another gift this year was the very somber and meaningful float in the Enon Independence Day parade. This float reminded us of those who sacrificed the ultimate for all of us.
Let us all try to remember to thank a veteran, and let us especially remember to thank those veterans of the VFW who show us all that they know the meaning of honor.
Mary Donnellan
Enon