Freedom rings, thanks to our WWII veterans
Ronald Reagan warned us that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
“It must be fought for, protected, and handed on to them (future generations) to do the same,” the Gipper stated.
That principle inspired George Ciampa, a World War II veteran, to create Let Freedom Ring, a nonprofit organization focused on educating today’s generation on the importance of being free.
Ciampa was a skinny 18-year-old weighing just 112 pounds when he landed on June 6, 1944, (D-Day) in Normandy, France. Over the next 11 months, he and others from the 607th Graves Registration Company handled the remains of soldiers who were killed. The unit gathered about 75,000 corpses, recovering their personal items, putting their bodies in mattress covers and burying them in temporary graves.
After returning home from Europe, Ciampa wanted to forget the war. It wasn’t until 50 years later during his first trip back to France since the war that he told family members what he had witnessed, and tried to contact others he had served with in Europe.
As a teen, Ciampa saw how people in Europe lost their freedom when Nazi Germany occupied their countries in an attempt to conquer the continent. Now 93, he realizes that too many people today take freedom for granted, never realizing that it could be taken away. Ciampa still visits schools to teach younger generations about what he calls “the high cost of freedom.”
He is also a documentary film producer. After visiting Normandy 2007, he made his sixth and last documentary, “D-Day Veterans Return to Normandy” which was featured in the G.I. Film Festival and shown across the country on more than 90 PBS stations.
His quest to pass on history to a generation of younger Americans is crucial.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, about 496,770 were alive in 2018, according to Veterans Affairs figures collected by the National WWII Museum. Every day, on average more than 300 die, taking with them a personal eyewitness account to wartime history. Gordon “Nick” Mueller, president and CEO emeritus of the National WWII Museum, said that “every time a veteran dies, a library burns.”
Many liberal professors and history revisionists ignore or certainly downplay many pivotal events in history.
The Holocaust is a prime example. Last year, a study commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany revealed that two-thirds of all U.S. millennials didn’t know what the Auschwitz concentration camp was, and many others had no idea of the magnitude of the Holocaust. Four out of 10 believed 2 million or fewer Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust. The actual number is about 6 million.
This disconnect to history may impact modern society. The FBI estimates that hate crimes have spiked nationwide, and between 2014 and 2017, anti-Semitic attacks rose 54 percent.
A recent survey also found that most incidents of hate and bias in schools go unreported, and the perpetrators face no discipline.
A group of California teenagers even documented themselves making Nazi salutes and posing with swastikas. Volker Benkert, an assistant professor of history at Arizona State University, called that behavior the “ultimate publication for attention.”
He said when veterans and Holocaust survivors die, their stories will be relegated to cultural memory, which have less impact than the lived experiences of individuals.
It’s been 75 years since George Ciampa experienced both the horrors and heroics of war while serving in the European Theater of war. When speaking to young students today, Ciampa stresses that without the brave men and women of his generation, the world would be a different place.
Ciampa said all he can do is talk to kids in schools, and that it’s up to the schools and universities to do their part. Given the age we’re living in, we can’t wait for schools and colleges to suddenly pivot to deliver the unfiltered truth.
It’s grizzled veterans like Ciampa who can best deliver what the school text books and college professors are ignoring. He and his comrades in arms lived it … allowing our freedom to ring today.
By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com
Comments
No get that plane ticket and join forces with the Kurds.
Do you even know how to fire a weapon?
Go get em killer!
So was trump played by Erdogan or has he changed his mind?
Our president shows strength in restraint.
Lest you forget, Korea called trump a warmonger, and the liberal dolts could not have agreed more. The Mental Mika meltdown... James Clapper called trump a warmonger...
It's the main stream media's bent to lie to you folks 25 hours a day.
Trump's biggest weapon of mass destruction, the one he'll launch first, is, the strength of US Dollar and our Strong Economy. He'll wipe them out financially.
Stop it Joe, you look like the board idiot.
An alignment of Antifa and PKK? Why? Both are terrorist groups.
Joe can go join the fight at YPG International.
http://narrative-collapse.com/2017/08/09/western-antifa-volunteer-fighters-expelled-from-al-raqqa-campaign/
YPG is Antifa. They are your kind of people Joe.
I stand with Trump pulling out of this mess the Kenyan started... YUP!
Joe and the rest of the idiots can join in with YPGInternational.
Joe, if you join the People’s Protection Units (YPG), and survive, you'll have honorary membership and a seat at the head of the table with your Antifa buddies.
Heck, your so militarily minded, they might make you a General.
Answer this Joe... Do you have a son serving in the infantry? Come on Mr, Military... Stop it!
And to be clear, he hasn’t “ended an endless war”. He moved our troops to allow turkey to slaughter the Kurds. The troops are still there but they have been moved to a place Putin prefers. And now trumpie is shocked that Turkey did exactly what everyone said would happen. He's incompetent.
https://ypginternational.blackblogs.org/contact-to-us/
Barack will be pleased
You only know what the babes on the Vue tell you. Think for yourself.
Stop with the cute buzz words though... autocratic? Come on girl!
As for our freedom as a result of World War II there has not been a bigger myth perpetrated on the citizens of America! Up until America got into the war the USA was doing business with the Third Reich and that includes the Trump family. I'm sick and tired of the troglodytic masses telling me I'd be speaking German if it wasn't for our World War II veterans. That is a big pile of BS. The so-called greatest Generation hasn't been nothing but a siphon on the taxpayer and that includes their progeny. The dangers to America during World War II we're grossly exaggerated and we're still paying for the overpriced WW2 debacle.
The WWII generation saved the world. Thank a veteran for what they did. I will be forever grateful for the monumental task that they accomplished.
The article was inserted to spur such conversation.
These are very strange times, as was the case in the 1940's.
We had and still have have the first amendment rights, allowing discussion.
In the 40's, humanity, primarily Germany, closed its ears to silent screams. It was a world where anti-Semitism was increasing in waves. Interesting how we see that again. Where is the anti-Semitism rising up? Was the previous president an anti-Semite? Is there a push for Socialism today?
Here's a good question... Is it fair and accurate to compare Donald J Trump to Adolf Hitler?
How about comparing/equating the happenings at the southern border as Blumenthal did, to Auschwitz? Fair? Accurate? I see it as changing history.
The Democrats just attack, attack, attack! Like a coup! A coup for what? Didn't the men who died fighting Hitler and the Communists, die to keep communism (socialism) from spreading?
It's a time not to remain silent.
Deeper issues? I think not sir.
Democratic President, Democratic Congress entered the War for humanitarian reasons. Not one Deviant Republican voted to enter the War since they were all in , or protecting, a sick little business bed with the Third Reich. The Rambos and Levites and Meyers of the world are either hypocrites or uneducated troglodytes. Pick one, either one is dangerous to America.
I'm not a deviant, so thanks for making that clear buddy.
But what about the actions of Democrats these days?
The threat comes from uninformed voters, who make decisions based on either a five word headline and popularity.
God Help Us!
Religion: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
Belief: something that is accepted, considered to be true, or held as an opinion : something believed
They fit in my world, except for atheism, not sure there even is such a thing.
Atheism: a philosophical or religious position characterized by disbelief in the existence of a god or any gods
With the above, you need only believe you're correct.
I'll take that post to suggest I'm uninformed. Very well.