When I was a senior in high school ,y history teacher had a woman who had survived one of the camps come in and talk to us. For the life of me I can't remember her name. Anyway I had joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard during my junior year in high school at the ripe old age of 17. Went split option training and did basic between my junior and senior years and was assigned to HQ battery of the 1/171 Field Artillery, 45th Artillery Brigade, formally the 45th Infantry Division.
The 45th liberated several camps at the end of WWII. Well the day this woman came and talked to our history class, I happened to be wearing my field jacket that day because it was cold out. When she saw my unit patch of the 45th
she came up to me and gave me a huge hug and kiss. I wasn't sure what was going on and all my friends were looking at me wondering what was going on. She told us all that it was a unit of the 45th that liberated her camp, and she remembered that unit patch. After hearing her talk for an hour about what she endured and everything she went through after the war coming to the states, I really got interested in WWII history and the history of the 45th. Most of all it made me proud to wear that patch on my shoulder, knowing the history behind it, and the expectations that wearing it put on me. It was a National Guard unit in WWII, Korea, and Desert Storm were I served, and it has always had a distinguished history filled with sacrifice, and achievement. That one day in history class hearing the real life stories from someone who lived those events really made me think about what that generation went through, and what was expected of me to carry on that tradition.
It's a shame that in todays day and age that sort of thing is looked down on. We can learn so much from those that have gone before us, but most people want to forget that terrible things like that ever happened.
to those that lived in that time, and did what was right no matter the personal cost to themselves. I'm glad to see that many on these boards still believe in honoring those that gave so much of themselves for our freedoms today, even while those very freedoms are being chipped away by those that want to forget.
