Lawyers Road Review

In the Second World War, young Russian women, often just girls, would volunteer to fight at the front against the Germans. If assigned to a tank medical corps, their position was to ride on the back of a tank into battle while the male soldiers rode inside driving the tank and firing the weapons.

When they observed a tank hit by enemy fire, not necessarily the one they rode on, they leapt to the ground, charged the often burning tank and extracted the dead and dying crew members to attend to the living.

One village sent five of these young women to this duty. One returned home.

From The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II, Svetlana Alexivevich.

Reading histories of not that long ago in a place on the far side of the world, but concerning our then ally and then later enemy, seem unreal. It is all reversed now. How easily could this all be different here?

The problem with history is it tends to repeat itself, or at least it rhymes, according to American humorist and writer Mark Twain.

So if things seem pretty good on this side of the planet in terms of our day to day security, the availability of food, medicine and a warm place to sleep, what does the past offer as to what lies ahead?

My peers and I were born at the right time and place. World War II was over and for me birthed in 1958, the United States was not in any particular hot war anywhere in the world. In fact, by the time I reached age 18 I found I didn’t need to register for the draft.

That we were born under the threat of nuclear annihilation seemed a distant possibility, much like we treat air travel today: the airplane might go down, but it is unlikely.

Perhaps then it is with morbid fascination I almost always have some title about history open in Kindle or a paper book. By now I am asking myself whether our time is so special? Have we somehow taken all the steps necessary to avoid war, let alone another World War?

I recall the practice air raid sirens going off as late as 1980 in Spokane where I attended law school. Then in the night hearing and seeing the massive B-52 bombers coming low over the city, all in practice of course.

Have we reached the Copernicus Moment, a watershed where major wars are a thing of the past?

I don’t think so, and fear for the future of our children, we having lived most of our lives in relative peace. It all seems unreal to imagine.

Consider this pairing of photographs of Seattle’s waterfront, Smith Cove to be specific.

Here is the USS Missouri, site of the Japanese surrender in World War II in Tokyo Bay, then sometime afterwards it was berthed in Smith Cove on the Seattle waterfront. This dockyard had been acquired for war use by the US Navy which retained tenancy there in the 1950’s when this photograph was taken.

Here is Smith Cove today. The Navy has gone and cruise ships have taken their place. How long can this floating beach party be maintained? As of now the baby boomers have had a remarkable run of luck, living in the long glide of the postwar period in relative peace and prosperity.

I count Jimmy Buffett as the first baby boomer. Born December 25, 1946, his father had been part of the Army Corps of Engineers. We can just see this story played out millions of times; the men come home from war, settle down and start having children.

Credit: By Chief Mass Communication Specialist Michael W. Pendergrass – This file was derived from: US Navy 080128-N-3235P-221 Recording artists Jimmy Buffett, right, and Mac Macnally, a member of the.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3899111

That our father was a Cold Warrior doesn’t really change the equation much, we were still born as part of the birthing wave that petered out in 1964.

Looking through the massive trove of slides my parents left behind I am struck by the idyllic posture of our childhood.

We grew up safe and secure. We had enough to travel a bit, first in a tent, then renting a travel trailer and then owning one all pulled and carried by a 1970 International Harvester Travelall, the grandfather of the SUV.

It’s impossibly large engine meant the vehicle had two gas tanks. This became a problem during the early 1970’s oil embargo but we went anyway.

Prior to then I recall my uncle Steve returning from Vietnam and visiting us. Judging by the photograph this was either just before or just after he was surrounded with the rest of his Marine regiment at Khe Sahn in 1968. My sister and I asked him to tell war stories. He muttered something about tossing a hand grenade into a NVA machine gun nest but that is all we got.

I recall my paternal grandmother asking us to leave the news broadcast on television during a report on Vietnam in case she could catch a glimpse of her son there.

We have had wars since then of course, and the casualties of those conflicts are just as real as we suffered in Vietnam, if not as numerous. And yet these people there were volunteers, we did not witness the same kind of compulsory service we saw in the 1960-70’s and before.

Perhaps this is what I fear the most. The kind of conflict we may see next is so large there is no escaping it as it was in World War Two. Everyone is involved, one way or another.

Jimmy Buffett died September 1, 2023, the oldest surfer on the beach. To me this was a watershed moment, the real fact that our time here is finite as he said, not that long a stay. But more than that, what he represented, that big long beach party that followed World War II might just be over.

I still grieve the loss of Jimmy Buffett, not just for him but what the man represented.

Its hard to take. Particularly what the rhymes of history tell us what is next.

But that is not today. Perhaps it is not tomorrow. So we Boomers should continue to do what we do best, live the life the last generation made for us.

Its been a great time. You betcha.