Those of you who parse these pages of Ezra’s Essays will recall the name of Sven Lernevall. Mr. Lernevall is an accomplished fellow who speaks his native tongue of Swedish. Also he and his wife Ella speak flawless English. Interestingly, the accent that he brings to the English language is of the American variety. I had thought that, being a European, his accent would be more British than American but that is not the case.
Mr. Lernevall was born six months after my birth in 1922. Because he is younger than me, I have taken it upon myself to be sort of his elder brother. I have warned him about the danger of smoking too much and hanging around with loose girls. That is the function that every older brother must perform for those who are younger. Sven is now at 88½ years of age, which makes him six months younger than I am.
Upon the occasion of my 89th birthday, Sven sent me the following email. Here is what it said:
“As I am a little younger than you, Ed, I look upon you as an example of how an old man can take care of his life. Not many people of your age are so happy as you, writing essays and so on. And I admire the way that you deal with your sight handicap. More action than lamentation. I Guess that’s the guts of an American soldier.”
In no way do I deserve all of the praise that Sven has brought to me in his birthday message. But as always, there are jewels in what Sven has to say. Remember that English is his second or third language when he says “More action than lamentation.” That tells you a little bit about the depth of Sven’s intellect. And finally there is the line about the “guts of an American soldier.” From my writings, Sven knows about my service in the American military. I do not worship the military of this nation or any other. But when war comes, as it did in the case of World War II in 1941, there is no choice but to deal with it. I hope that in my service to the American military, we earned the high praise that Sven has heaped upon it. From my standpoint, I did what I had to do with respect to being a soldier, and as soon as it was possible, I abandoned that career once the war was finished.
But there are thoughts that go with Sven’s offering of “the guts of an American soldier.” I have given a thought to that line on this very rainy afternoon during the stock market plunge. My service was not outstanding. I did what needed to be done, and as soon as possible I told the Army goodbye. I always bore in mind the corporal’s comment during my basic training, when he told me, “Soldier, you don’t get paid for thinking. You get paid to do what you are told.” That may be pretty good advice for all of us.
But as long as Sven has brought up the subject of the American soldier, I have three comments that are of some significance here. In the first place, I enlisted in the American Army as a means of protection for the United States of America. I had hoped that, when the war was done, we would bring justice to those who had sown terror upon our troops and upon occupied nations. So the first comment is that I believed and hoped that my presence in the American military would bring terror to the hearts of our enemies.
Secondly, I hope that the enemies of the United States will treat our prisoners as well as all of those in the occupied territories with great compassion. I saw what was done to the Italian people after they switched sides and came to us. They were starved and beaten and treated cruelly by the Germans. So my second point is that I hoped that our enemies would treat our prisoners and the citizens in the occupied territories with a degree of compassion.
Finally there is the matter of hope. I thought that my service would bring hope to all of those who were oppressed in the war, with the thought that they would live to see a better day. I know that the victims of the Holocaust must have given up hope because no one seemed to come to their rescue. But when the final accounting is made, I would want my service to bring hope to our prisoners of war and to those who are oppressed by occupying forces.
Well, so there are three of the varying thoughts about terror, compassion, and hope. My service to the American military ended in 1945, which is now the better part of 65 or 70 years ago. But when Sven speaks of the American soldier, I realize that he does this out of admiration, which I greatly appreciate. Perhaps this small essay in response will make it clear that my service was intended to bring terror to our enemies, compassion to our prisoners of war and those who are oppressed, and hope to everyone who is downtrodden and under the heel of the conqueror. My thoughts have not been expressed in elegant terms. But I left the American army in 1945 and only at this late date do I have Sven’s message. I hope that my response is adequate, even if it is inelegant.
E. E. CARR
August 11, 2011
Essay 570
~~
Kevin’s commentary: I don’t think this was a particularly inelegant essay. It occurs to me to ask, though – if these were Pop’s three goals going in, how effective did he consider himself at meeting them on the way out? I know Pop won’t write about the war so that might make this a tricky question to answer, but I hope nevertheless that he will give us some understanding of how things looked from the immediate other side of the conflict.