Abe Cantees Joe Lane
Cliff Robertson, CIA director to his boss, John Houseman in Three Days of the Condor:
“You served with Colonel Donovan in the OSS didn’t you sir?”
“I sailed the Adriatic with a movie star at the helm. It doesn’t seem like much of a war now but it was. I go even further back than that, 10 years after the Great War as we used to call it before we knew enough to number them.”
“Do you miss that kind of action, sir?”
“No. I miss that kind of clarity.”
That movie dealt with a CIA plot to de-stabilize the Middle East in order to control the oil (sound familiar). Yet Houseman’s observation is an apt description for every war and every CIA covert operation since WWII, all of which are imbued with ambiguity: who’s really the bad guy, what purpose does our involvement serve, etc. etc. Today’s conflicts are certainly not of the black/white variety of yesteryear where the need was urgent and obvious. Further, it is this ambiguity that fuels the divisions we experience over such wars as Vietnam and Iraq, one side viewing them as essential wars of defense, the other as senseless wars of choice.
This all came to mind the other day in the mall as I spoke with my cousin’s father in-law, Abe Cantees, always one of the happiest, nicest people I’ve known, and now a spry 95. Uncle Abe and I spoke about a lot of things but eventually got to his service in WWII. He told me about going to France a few months after the D-Day invasion. One day German tanks were approaching the field when he and his crew took cover in a barn. The Gideons had given bibles to the servicemen on their voyage to England, so he kept that in his breast pocket.
It’s a good thing! The shrapnel from the tank tore through the barn, a piece cutting through his right wrist and another piece piercing the bible, which surely saved his life! Another twist of fate was that he spent 6 months in a hospital and when recovered sufficiently went back to his unit. Problem was there was no unit, just a sergeant who told Uncle Abe they had been shipped off to the Battle of the Bulge and killed in captivity, a fate he surely would have shared had he not been injured. He says there was constant fear and constant prayer.
Overhearing our conversation was yet another WWII veteran who was manning a sunglass kiosk in the mall. Joe Lane was 19 when he signed up January 2, 1942 same as legions of young men in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Mr. Lane became a marine, eventually a staff sergeant, and was sent to the Pacific where he spent four years, from Guadalcanal to Saipan, then Tinian (from whence the Enola Gay flew her historic mission over Hiroshima) and Iwo Jima. He too recalls being scared the whole time, at least during the stretches when they were in the field close to battle.
“You served with Colonel Donovan in the OSS didn’t you sir?”
“I sailed the Adriatic with a movie star at the helm. It doesn’t seem like much of a war now but it was. I go even further back than that, 10 years after the Great War as we used to call it before we knew enough to number them.”
“Do you miss that kind of action, sir?”
“No. I miss that kind of clarity.”
That movie dealt with a CIA plot to de-stabilize the Middle East in order to control the oil (sound familiar). Yet Houseman’s observation is an apt description for every war and every CIA covert operation since WWII, all of which are imbued with ambiguity: who’s really the bad guy, what purpose does our involvement serve, etc. etc. Today’s conflicts are certainly not of the black/white variety of yesteryear where the need was urgent and obvious. Further, it is this ambiguity that fuels the divisions we experience over such wars as Vietnam and Iraq, one side viewing them as essential wars of defense, the other as senseless wars of choice.
This all came to mind the other day in the mall as I spoke with my cousin’s father in-law, Abe Cantees, always one of the happiest, nicest people I’ve known, and now a spry 95. Uncle Abe and I spoke about a lot of things but eventually got to his service in WWII. He told me about going to France a few months after the D-Day invasion. One day German tanks were approaching the field when he and his crew took cover in a barn. The Gideons had given bibles to the servicemen on their voyage to England, so he kept that in his breast pocket.
It’s a good thing! The shrapnel from the tank tore through the barn, a piece cutting through his right wrist and another piece piercing the bible, which surely saved his life! Another twist of fate was that he spent 6 months in a hospital and when recovered sufficiently went back to his unit. Problem was there was no unit, just a sergeant who told Uncle Abe they had been shipped off to the Battle of the Bulge and killed in captivity, a fate he surely would have shared had he not been injured. He says there was constant fear and constant prayer.
Overhearing our conversation was yet another WWII veteran who was manning a sunglass kiosk in the mall. Joe Lane was 19 when he signed up January 2, 1942 same as legions of young men in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Mr. Lane became a marine, eventually a staff sergeant, and was sent to the Pacific where he spent four years, from Guadalcanal to Saipan, then Tinian (from whence the Enola Gay flew her historic mission over Hiroshima) and Iwo Jima. He too recalls being scared the whole time, at least during the stretches when they were in the field close to battle.
To Joe and his colleagues there was no doubt about why they were putting their lives on the line: to protect the rest of the world from Japanese who wanted only to destroy. As he said, they were taught to hate Americans and that it was their right to dominate the rest of the world. They had to be stopped. Black/white good vs. evil and they started it.
February 19, 1945 he recalled in detail. His bunker was being shelled hard so he exhorted his companions to get out. The next morning he went back and found the bloodied body of a fellow soldier who had stayed behind.
There are thousands of stories about this war; yet everyday we lose to the heavens those who were there to tell them. The thing about the veterans of WWII whom I have known, dad and uncles included, is that I have rarely met people of more humanity, more compassion, more inner strength, confidence, gentility, good will and good humor than them. It’s as if having gone through that hell and survived there is nothing in this good ol’ life that could ever shake them, that God and heaven are real, and when their time comes they are so, so ready to go.
I thank them and all veterans of every war, conflict or operation, including and especially those serving today in our armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. Today’s wars may lack the clarity of yesterday’s, but not the heroic bravery of our soldiers.
There are thousands of stories about this war; yet everyday we lose to the heavens those who were there to tell them. The thing about the veterans of WWII whom I have known, dad and uncles included, is that I have rarely met people of more humanity, more compassion, more inner strength, confidence, gentility, good will and good humor than them. It’s as if having gone through that hell and survived there is nothing in this good ol’ life that could ever shake them, that God and heaven are real, and when their time comes they are so, so ready to go.
I thank them and all veterans of every war, conflict or operation, including and especially those serving today in our armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. Today’s wars may lack the clarity of yesterday’s, but not the heroic bravery of our soldiers.
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