“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.” - Psalm 144:1
Their journey into greatness was set in motion on Dec. 7, 1941 at a Pacific anchorage called Pearl Harbor. Over 2,400 would perish that morning, yet today less than 2,000 Pearl Harbor survivors are still with us. Roughly 16½-17 million more Americans would serve in uniform by the end of World War II. Of those millions, less than 855,000 are still alive and continue to succumb at a predictable rate of 492 daily. Georgia’s surviving Greatest Generation has dwindled to below 20,000.

I respectfully offer a scripted eulogy for seven members of the Greatest Generation previously featured in “A Veteran’s Story” plus a respected colleague of the Atlanta WWII Round Table. For the many I’ve known who will not be mentioned, my sincere apologies, for they too saw, felt, tasted, smelled, and heard the horrors of combat. Maybe one day their stories, too, can be retold.