The Panthers Veterans Organization

I just read the articles of incorporation of the Panthers Veterans’ Organization (PVO) that the survivors of the 66th Infantry Army Division formed after WW II officially ended in 1945 (in the European Theater of Operations).

The document had bravado; the glorification of the war, the gloating over killing of other people.  All of this was historically okay during a time for some veterans but not for everyone.  I say this advisedly, because in 2006 at an army reunion I conversed with some men who were there with my uncle Carl Ralph Bonde Jr.  Men like Walter Merza, Bill Moomey, Hank Anderson, and Bob Carroll.  I must hastily add that not all the soldiers at the reunion said war was foul.  Randy Bradham and Al Salata, were more patriotic and pro-war but not by much. Al was the oldest soldier of Bud’s Company E present and unlike the others who were drafted as college kids.  Interestingly, everyone at the reunion said he was a Republican except me