Vince's Bravery

 

        Luke Maguire

        HIST-300

        My Great Uncle Vince was the type of guy who would call you on the telephone, and when you would pick up, he would ALWAYS say "Hey there, good lookin'!". He used to drive super slow getting places saying he was in "no hurry at all" and he would pull over and just calmly let them pass him just saying "Go ahead, if you want to drive faster please do!'. He was a man who was in absolutely no hurry for anything in life. He was simply just happy to be alive. The most shocking thing about this story is that 60 years before that, he was wrapped in one of the worst catastrophic events in human History.

        

     I wrote about Vince before in this class, I talked about his war medals that I hold near and dear to me, however, I never really delved into the story about him, and the fact that he hardly ever talked about it. My Mom, who knew him all the way up until he was an adult (he passed away when I was very young) talked about how Vince rarely mentioned anything about the war, the memories for him were way too difficult to bring up, and in fact, the only person that we know for sure talked to him about anything military related was my Uncle Eric who was also in the Military, flying fighter jets in the Air Force. Vince was the type of person you absolutely loved to see, the type of guy who would show you how much he cared about you in every single interaction you had with him, Vince, however, was not exactly given the most perfect life by anyone's standards, but he may even disagree with you on that. 

    Vince grew up extremely poor in a family of eight, he had two sisters and three brothers. He was the second oldest of the bunch, and with that came a great deal of responsibility. Vince's father died in the coal mines when they were just young kids, leaving their Mother widowed and in charge of six kids, which was absolutely no task for a single woman living in Exeter Pennsylvania in the 1940's. Vince and his oldest brother Eddie decided that to try to find a better life, and to help provide for the family, they would go into the war. There was one issue with this however, Vince was only 16 years old. This didn't stop him however, and because of the times that they were in, it almost propelled him further into that decision. Like mentioned in the Historyextra.com article "Boys who lied about their age to fight in WWII", it states "Boys as young as 14 lied about their age in order to enlist and fight in the Second World War" (P1). Fourteen years old is an absolutely wild age to be making any sort of adult decisions, specifically ones involving violent warfare. However, this was just the times that they were in, and Vince was part of the group that decided it would be a better life. 

    The issue that Vince ended up having with these plans of fighting for Freedom and a "better life" was in the form of arguably the most famous invasion in American History. Operation Overlord, or better known as "D-Day" to most Americans is what Vince was faced with as a bright eyed, 16 year old kid who didn't even get the chance to graduate High School yet, couldn't have a drink, and certainly couldn't fight in the US Military legally. Vince though, with the personality he was famous for, still made it out anyway. He was part of multiple platoons that stormed the beaches of Normandy that day, specifically landing on Omaha beach, which was the most deadly beach to have landed on, with over 2400 American casualties because as the 2019 History.com article by Jesse Greenspan states "The troubles for the Americans began early on, when Army intelligence underestimated the number of German soldiers in the area" (Greenspan 1). This event would have been horrifically traumatizing for people of any age, let alone a 16 year old who has never been out of his small Pennsylvania town, and that is why Vince rarely ever spoke of it. 

    So after hearing all of that, why is this important? While not a lot is known about Vince's times in Europe, it goes without saying that his story, along with the thousands of others there that day is a massive piece of human History, and without the stories of these young men, it would've been hard to ever have developed an idea of exactly how it all happened. I believe that in today's society, with the rise of Anti-Semitism, and the fact that White Supremacy is still an idea that is widely believed in some circles, these stories are as important as ever as to why these young men went to fight in the first place, for freedom not only for ourselves, but for those who couldn't fight for it in their own right. This doesn't only include the United States either, countries like England, Canada and others had a massive stake in what was going on here as for the peace of the world, and their allies countries. Unfortunately, as the years pass, so do the veterans who fought fearlessly in battle to protect the freedoms of others. According to the National WWII Museum, as of 2022 there are approximately 167,000 Americans who fought in WWII that are still alive, and that number drops by the day. If I wasn't sitting here writing this story for others to read, it is possible that Vince's story may go unheard forever. Until I began to dig into it, my Mother was the only family member who really knew the gist of what Vince went through, and when her and I are both gone, had I never said any of this, the story will be forgotten. 

    The reason telling stories of this nature is so beyond important not only to preserve History, but to show a different lifestyle of wanting to do good, even if it meant in the face of the most dangerous adversity, and not only that, but coming home and being as good of a person as you could possibly be. That was Vince and that was his legacy. The way to commemorate Vince without fully understanding the exact traumas that he went through it to tell this story. If I had to bring up the biggest take away from his life, I think it would be that a negative attitude gets you nowhere, patience is a virtue, and you are stronger than any problem you may have. Vince was the type of guy who wouldn't want his story to be really harped on for people to praise him or glorify him or any of that. He was simply a man who truly loved to be alive. Of course we all could, and SHOULD learn from that. Without the stories of the heroics of people who suffered only to become bigger than what's holding them back, and without knowing about events such as this, how are we supposed to be encouraged? I often pray to God, hoping that Vince is up there listening. I never really got the pleasure to know him, but as I say every single time I pray, a negative attitude is the only thing holding you back, you are the only person who can choose how you feel, and even if it may be hard, try to make the right decision. 

Works Cited

Greenspan, J. (2014, June 6). Landing at normandy: The 5 beaches of D-Day. History.com. https://www.history.com/news/landing-at-normandy-the-5-beaches-of-d-day#:~:text=Surrounded%20by%20steep%20cliffs%20and,German%20soldiers%20in%20the%20area. 

HistoryExtra. (2022, August 30). The boys who lied about their age to fight in WW2. HistoryExtra.  https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/boys-who-lied-about-age-to-fight-ww2-teenage-soldiers/ 

WWII veteran statistics: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans. The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. (n.d.).  https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/wwii-veteran-statistics