ask what you can do for your country

Apple TV+’s World War II miniseries Masters of the Air offers plenty of opportunities to reflect on American life, past and present. This nine-episode limited series details the events of the U.S. Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, the so-called Bloody 100, as they fly a series of dangerous missions throughout German-occupied Europe. Masu.

Each scene depicts the airmen flying through intense anti-aircraft fire while enduring heavy attacks from Luftwaffe fighter pilots. Planes and crews were routinely torn apart. Almost every frame of the early series features explosions, carnage, and suffering.

Especially episode 5 is terrible. This report details the raid on the city of Münster in October 1943, after which only one of his 13 planes in the Hundredth Division returned to base. The massive B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft was an easy target for German fighter pilots, and disaster was an almost daily outcome. “Fighter planes were above us,” one pilot recalled. “In the end, a 20mm shell came into the cockpit. I was trying to stabilize the plane. I dropped my glasses. A shell exploded in front of me. It came up from behind. There was a flash. I had first- and second-degree burns. Shell fragments wrapped around my leg and my sleeve was torn to shreds.”

Still, he managed to accomplish his mission. As I watched, I couldn’t help but wonder if men of his generation had the courage to do what they did.

Overall, from June 1943 to April 1945, the 100th Bomb Group flew 306 missions and 8,630 sorties with disastrous losses of 732 aviators and 177 aircraft. A further 923 people were captured as prisoners of war, where they faced even more dire conditions. Rations were insufficient to maintain health. During the last months of their captivity, starvation became a serious problem.

As I watched this series, I kept thinking two things. The first was how lucky I was to be born in Rumford, Maine, in the mid-1950s. In contrast to countless other humans, past and present, here and elsewhere, history has required little of me other than to follow my dreams and pursue happiness. Can citizens of other countries make such assumptions?

I often worry about my privilege. The only salvation I find is in the proposition, “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

I joined the Peace Corps in 1985 and served two years in West Africa. I became a teacher in 1998 and strived to inform and inspire young people. I donate to charity, but of course you can donate more. I have picketed to protest injustice and preached humanism all my life. But it’s not enough, and I can’t help but feel that my contribution is not commensurate with my privilege.

My second thought was about how one of our presidential candidates, Donald Trump, has repeatedly disrespected America’s fallen soldiers. In 2015, he famously objected to calling former senator and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain a war hero. As a reminder, Mr. McCain endured five years of deprivation and torture as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. Nevertheless, Trump mocked this: “I like people who weren’t captured, okay?”

Although President Trump himself was eligible for military service, he did not serve in the Vietnam War. He received four student deferments and an additional medical deferment for a bone spur in his heel, thanks to a doctor who was resident at one of his father’s estates.

As president, Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Military Cemetery near Paris in 2018, saying the Secret Service would not take him there because “helicopters can’t fly.” Neither claim was true. The Atlantic reported that Trump rejected the idea of ​​the trip because he feared “the rain would mess up his hair” and because he didn’t think it was important to honor America’s war dead. “Why do I have to go to that cemetery?” he reportedly asked the staff. “This place is full of losers.”

During the same visit, President Trump called the more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood “sucks.” These comments, deplorable at the time, are even more horrifying to me, who has seen Masters of the Air. And those are far from what most Americans expect to hear from their commander in chief.

” previous