[ I also should mention that I have an uncle named Walter C. Barlow who was with the 5th Field Arty of the Big Red One.
Uncle Walter was KIA on the Normandy Beach head 06 JULY 1944.
There were conflicting reports of how Uncle Walter bought it but some of his brothers in action told the family that a Jerry shell landed in his foxhole and scattered him to the four winds.
A secondary goal for me is to get access to after action reports of his unit from that fateful day.
Though I have seen many WWII photos in my life, the photos that I've seen in the past month have had a profound impact on me. I have been introduced on an intimate level to the destruction inflicted upon the lands of battle. I see photos of oh-so-young men and women who were thrust into the conflict. The vibrant, young faces, so full of life, that are captured in the war photos have grown old with the passage of time and now that generation is dying off.
It has been written that WWII was the last great "romantic war" I've talked with vets who have scorned at that moniker, "There's nothing romantic about killing people." Surely not. But taken in the proper context it was. War and conflict have been subject to technological innovation. Killing the enemy now is oft relegated to the pushing of a button that is located miles from the front lines. "End around" moves are captured in satellite imagery and infrared technology has negated the element of surprise that once came with night maneuvers.
An attack of the scope Pearl Harbor would not be possible with today's technology. Georgie Patton, no doubt, spins in his grave at what war has become. Cold, calculated, impersonal. One bomb can wipe out an entire city. A battle begins and ends literally in the wink of an eye. The dead reduced to shadows on the scortched earth.
It is said that by virture of the nature of the conflict that they were thrust into, my father's generation was the "Greatest Generation." Now more then ever, I'm inclined to agree with that assesment.