Art Kramer

ART KRAMER'S WWII STORIES

Thoughts at a Funeral For a Stranger

On the 5th of January 1945 we hit the road junction at Houfalize during the Battle of the Bulge. On this mission there was only one casualty, a radio gunner who was killed by a single piece of flak.I was not on that mission and I never knew the gunner who was killed. I choose not to reveal his identity now. But I went to his funeral as did everyone in the 344th.. I didn't know what he looked like or what kind of a person he was. Only about a fourth of everyone present was from his squadron, which meant that at his funeral, he was being surounded more by strangers than friends. As we all stood there in our class A's, I couldn' t help but think, that at a time like this, he was a stranger to most all of us. And if it were I lying there, would I also be surrounded by mourners whom I never knew, and who never knew me. I was overtaken by a great sadness about the nature of death in war. And in many ways, that sadness has never left me to this day. And I wondered of I died would there be a mourner who would think the same of me?. Or is it that this is just the nature of the beast and comes to all of us in the same way.?

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