An airman’s letter that moved me deeply: The anniversary of the Gettysburg Address and “a country worth dying for”
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2024
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On March 11, 1944, the B-24 bomber nicknamed “Heaven Can Wait” was shot down by Japanese antiaircraft gunners off the coast of the Pacific island of New Guinea. One of the crew member’s remains has been identified this past week, bringing his old letters home back into the news. This letter calls us, on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, to “take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Greetings. I'm Chris Elkins and welcome to the Tuesday, November 19th, 2024 edition of the Daily Article podcast. |
| 0:10.0 | Today's daily article is written by Denison Forum co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison. |
| 0:16.5 | Second Lieutenant Thomas V. Kelly Jr. was one of 11 crew members on the B-24 bomber nicknamed Heaven Can Wait. |
| 0:25.6 | On March the 11th, 1944, their plane was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft gunners off the coast of the Pacific Island of New Guinea. |
| 0:34.5 | All 11 died. Last spring, a team of elite Navy divers and archaeologists |
| 0:40.0 | found the craft site and recovered the remains of three men. Last Friday, the Defense Department |
| 0:46.1 | announced that Lieutenant Kelly's remains had been positively identified through dental and |
| 0:51.0 | anthropological analysis. Divers also found his Army Air Force ring and two of |
| 0:56.5 | his dog tags. In one of the last letters home to his parents, Lieutenant Kelly wrote, |
| 1:01.9 | I don't want you to feel sorry for me. I'm just telling you to appreciate what you have. Even if you |
| 1:07.3 | don't think it's much, it is much. The men fighting here for everyone, they're doing it for your freedom. |
| 1:14.6 | When I read the story over the weekend, it moved me deeply. |
| 1:18.6 | I'm emotional again typing these words just now. |
| 1:22.6 | These days, Americans are disparaging each other more than at any time in my memory. |
| 1:28.0 | One woman is canceling Thanksgiving and Christmas at her home since her husband and his family voted for Donald Trump. |
| 1:34.8 | A father is refusing to pay his Trump supporting son's college tuition. |
| 1:39.3 | On the other side, rural areas in Illinois, a state with vast swaths of red counties, and a few blue cities, |
| 1:46.3 | are seeking to leave Illinois without moving. Their goal is to redraw state lines to constitute |
| 1:52.9 | themselves as New Illinois. Conservatives in California, Idaho, and Oregon would like to do |
| 1:59.4 | something similar. According to a recent poll, young voters overwhelmingly believe that almost all politicians on both sides are corrupt and that the U.S. will end up worse off than when they were born. |
| 2:12.5 | The lead pollster said, young voters do not look at our politics and see good guys. |
| 2:17.2 | They see a dying empire led by |
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