Old Soldiers Fade Away

I caught the last episode of "Band of Brothers" tonight. It was part of HBO's promotional run for the Asian TV debut of "The Pacific", the cable giant's latest World War II opus.

Considering how loony Tom Hanks (producer of both "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific") has become and how much of it showed in his appearances promoting his latest series, and the reduction of brave men who served in the Pacific into a bunch of racist rednecks by the morons who wrote "The Pacific", I have come to appreciate further how great "Band of Brothers" was. Coincidentally, when "The Pacific" debuted in the US, it attracted 3 million viewers. The rerun of Band of Brothers on the History Channel attracted 4.6 million viewers. The syndicated rerun of "Band of Brothers" can easily outdo the much-celebrated debut of Hanks' depiction of Marines as racists.

But what struck me about the final episode was the video of all those old soldiers speaking of their experiences and paying tribute to each other. The last living British veteran of World War I just died recently. Some day, all the veterans of World War II will be dead. I find it fortunate that before these old men fade away, they have preserved for posterity their witness of one of the greatest conflicts in human history. There, captured on film, were the last fading words of brotherhood, as only the fiery forge of war can produce.

From this day to the ending of the World,
But we in it shall be remembred;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers:
For he today who sheds his blood with me,
Shall be my brother...

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PS

Instead of "war junkies", why not a character study on men of this caliber? They cannot be all dead.