Before you go (WWII Vets)

[TomT]

Lest we forget.

Be sure to click on the link at the end.


The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood!

Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach, Fla., eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event.

He pulled up in his car at the airport parking lot booth, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly.

At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you."

Then the old soldier began to cry.

"That really got to me," Bierstock says.

Cut to today.

Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band - have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before the y die.

"If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "The WW II soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them."

The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web, the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.
"It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss " the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio , Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach . "I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them."

Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.


GOD BLESS every EVERY veteran...
and THANK you to those of you veterans who may receive this !


CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO HEAR THE SONG AND SEE THE PICTURES:
 
 
Before You Go


http://www.beforeyougo.us/play_byg

[f6john]

I forwarded this on to my Dad. He is 83 and a Marine veteran of WW11. Never speaks of his service. The only time he referred to the war during my growing up years was when I complained about the supper menu and he would tell me of kids he saw in China eating from garbage cans. They were and are still a special group of Americans. I hope the current generation will be able to grasp the contribution they made to the world they live in.

[solo1]

Here's a picture of our chapter of the Korean War Vets installing the flags at the local VA hospital with help from our family( there even is one Vietnan vet helping us this day).   We all served during the Korean War, some stateside, some in Korea. I served in Korea but I was lucky, no bad memories.

Two others in our chapter were in combat. After helping to raise these flags for 10 years, they are no longer able to help. Both have big medical problems.  It is indeed sobering to see all of our comrades gradually lose their health.  The Korean War Veterans are rapidly following the WWII vets in "fading away".

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to view that Memorial to WWII vets.

[bsnicely]

Hey Solo,  my father was a Korea Vet, 51 to 53. Wouldn't talk about it much. He has passed now (1995), only time I ever saw him tear up was one day when we were looking at a large coffee table book of pictures taken in Korea during the war.  We turned the page to a picture of a lineman up on a pole working on phone lines, he suddenly teared up and quit looking at the book with me. Never explained what the signifigance of the photo was but obviously it brought a bad memory from somewhere down deep. Thank you for your service in the " Forgotten War" and to all veterans.

[Hef]

What a Great Tribute! Thanks for sharing and "thank you" to all Vets for your service to our country. God Bless, Hef

[rmrc51]

I sent this out to my entire e-mail list.

My Dad is still with me. He's 87 and served in the North Atlantic on sub chaser duty. He saw many a convoy ship torpedoed along with his sister ship.

SALUTE!!!!

[R J]

Brian, those poor lads on the phone line poles were Sniper bait.

That is all I will say.............

[bsnicely]

Thanks RJ,  must have been it............

[shortleg]

  My Dad did WW2 Korea and Viet Nam with 1st marines.
I was lucky enough to have him tell me what he saw.
  I can,t tell you what it was like to see this man cry
like a baby and have to hold him.
  I hold his Navy Cross and wonder why he never told me about it.
 It wasnot until he had passed that I came across it.
 He always said the heros were the ones that gave all.
   That is not how I feel. They were also heros too,for
building a country like we have and allowing us to say
what we think.
  Here is a picture I found of him at an island called Tarawa.