101 year old survivor of the Bataan Death March

[dflprincess]

https://m.startribune.com/from-brainerd-to-bataan-at-101-veteran-recalls-the-horrors/573003751/?clmob=y&c=n&fbclid=IwAR1mWFG7H5Z9O9ZLMhNTuj85VMxyTjSjPAAuNWICtrgsOqnBlxMd8lAL82E

Every Sunday the Mpls Star Tribune has a history column that usually focuses on a person or story that few of people have heard. This week it was about 101 year old Bert Straka of Brainerd, Minnesota, one of the few remaining survivors of the Bataan Death March.

This is a man who deserves our thanks and admiiration no matter what his politics. His story deserves to read so that what these (mostly) men went through isn't forgotten. But, I couldn't help it, I had to smile and admire him even more when I read this:

Some big pieces of gold did come Straka’s way just in time for his birthday last month. He was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, a rare honor, and the Minnesota World War II Memorial Medallion for “his intrepidity and indomitable courage against a brutal enemy.”

Previous recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal include George Washington, Thomas Edison, Charles Lindbergh, Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks.

“I guess I’m in pretty good company,” said Straka, who declined an invitation to receive the medal at the White House. “I would have gone if Obama was still in there,” he said.

[Thekaspervote]

1. Thank you sir for your service..America salutes you

[Laffy Kat]

2. Wow. What a life.

He sounds like a great guy, too. I sure hope he has many more birthdays to celebrate.

[thinkingagain]

3. Maybe in a few months he can go to

The White House to meet Joe

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. My dad was also a Bataan survivor.

He died in 1993. I think of him daily.

[Sewa]

14. There was a Bataan survivor in my hometown

that would walk through town every evening. It didn’t matter what the weather conditions were, he would be out for his walk.

[MustLoveBeagles]

5. I salute you Bert Straka

[CloudWatcher]

6. Paywall fix?

Fyi if you hit a paywall trying to read this, try with a shorter URL, this:

https://m.startribune.com/from-brainerd-to-bataan-at-101-veteran-recalls-the-horrors/573003751

it worked for me, hope it helps someone else to read the story. Worth reading.

[keithbvadu2]

7. He was captured. Trump calls him a loser and a sucker.

He was captured.

Trump calls him a loser and a sucker.

[iluvtennis]

8. Aww I love him... a man with principles. nt

[czarjak]

9. My Daddy and five uncles and three aunts served during WWII...

“Suckers and losers”, I’ve been told. Wanna bet?

[burrowowl]

10. One of my sister's friends father made the flag that kept their camp from being bombed.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. That's the kind of thing more newspapers should do.

When I first lived in Tucson in the early 1960s, the paper we got (and I honestly forget which one of the two it was) did a similar kind of weekly column profiling a person or business or something that had been in the city for a long time. After a year or so, if you were a regular reader, you had a strong sense of the city, where it had come from, where it might be headed.

In the early 1980s I lived in Phoenix and subscribed to the local newspaper. There was nothing remotely like that. The city existed in a vacuum.

When my husband and I first moved there we registered to vote. There was a mayoral election coming up, but we chose not to cast votes because we felt we had not been there long enough to know the issues and to cast an informed vote. It was a very important election, because no matter which candidate won, it was going to mean a fundamental shift in the power structure that had been running the city since 1948.

A side note. We learned very quickly that to the vast majority of people who'd moved to Phoenix that the one and only thing that mattered to them was that they not have to shovel snow off their cars in winter. And while I've done that, and know it's not fun, and better not to have to do, it is simply not the only thing that contributes to quality of life. But most people in Phoenix thought it was the one and only one thing that matter.

Anyway. on election night my husband was out of town, and when we chatted that evening I told him, "Oh, by the way, Terry Goddard won the election." He said, "Great. I'll tell the guys (meaning his co-workers who were there with him) tomorrow." What's somewhat important here is that one had lived in Phoenix about 11 years, the other about 7 years, and as far as they were concerned, not having to shovel snow off their cars in winter was the only thing that mattered. When he met up with them the next morning and said, "Hey, Terry Goddard won the election." They said, "Huh? Terry who? What election?" They were totally oblivious to the election because if they didn't have to shovel snow off their cars in winter, what else mattered?

What else, indeed.

Oh, and for what it's worth, in my four years in Phoenix, 1983-1987, I never once met anyone whose roots in the state were deeper than mine, considering I'd first lived there in 1962, graduated high school there, and still had family there.

[druidity33]

17. How can a municipality...

keep snow from getting on your car? Or do the snow plows do your car too? Parking garages? Or are you using the "snow off car" thing as a metaphor for single issue voters?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. I'm using the meme about not having to shovel snow off the car

to show that for a significant number of people there, it was the only thing that apparently mattered. The blithe unawareness that a hugely important mayoral election was happening was shocking. All they cared about was that it didn't snow in Phoenix. Things like schools, good roads, parks, anything else you might want to think of simply didn't matter.

And it's not as though this election was not being covered by the local media. It was. Plus there were plenty of political ads on TV. But somehow, they were completely and blissfully unaware of it.

[sarisataka]

12. I had the privilege to meet Mr. Straka

about ten years ago in Brainerd. IIRC it was a commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the March. He was a very pleasant man and, like all true heroes, much preferred to talk about others who he said deserved the honors more than himself

[Kid Berwyn]

20. Thank you for sharing that moment.

Mr. Straka is one remarkable human being and a great patriot.

[AllaN01Bear]

13. a true

not one of these fake hateriots .

[disalitervisum]

15. My adoptive father was at Pearl Harbor

Last edited Mon Nov 9, 2020, 03:20 AM - Edit history (1)

He was also at Guadalcanal, as a POW, and he escaped with some other guys. His name is James Shell, Tech Sergeant, US Army Air Corps. He was also involved in the Berlin Airlift and the Cuban Missile Crisis. My biological father was disappeared during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He was a leader of the Hungarian uprising. His name is Janos Galgozy. Before he died, he made sure my mother gave birth to me in a free country, in Mannheim, West Germany. I am here because these two men gave their lives for me. And I want to add, if it were not for the women who loved them, Betty Dennis, and Heidi Galgozy, I could not have been an American, I could not have been anybody.

[Boomerproud]

16. Thank you for your story-and your incredible parents.

What a great thread this has been.

[lpbk2713]

19. See if they can put off the ceremony until February.

Then he can get it from a real president.