Article stirs memories


To the Editor:


Thanks for your article “Armistice day, November 11, 1918.” There have been so many wars and war-like situations since World War I that we tend to forget that terrible fiasco — “the war to end all wars.” My father, Harry Dawson, served as an army sergeant in World War I and was wounded and decorated. When World War II erupted I could not wait to get into the act, and I joined the Navy on my 17th birthday. He showed no emotion when he signed the paper that enabled me to enlist.


Years later, after my father died, I was talking with my stepmother about him. She reminded me that she and my father went with me to the railroad station and “saw me off.” She told me that after I had boarded the train and the train had left, my father sat down on a bench and wept. I knew him as a tough man who feared nothing, and had told me always to face danger and pain and “take it like a man.” After serving in World War II and the Korean War I was sure that I was the man that my father wanted me to be. I must admit, however, that when I see the horrible things that are happening in today’s wars — especially things that affect innocent children — the tears come to my eyes.


GEORGE G. DAWSON


Wantagh, New York