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Show WHERE WAS 1? ee ee ee ee e Ask yourself this question "Where was I on Saturday morning, April 22, at 10:30 o'clock?" At that particular time .services were being conducted for a member of the United States Marine Corps who was accidentally killed while on maneuvers at Pendleton Field, California. His was the first body of any service man to be brought back to Bingham for burial yet there was a comparatively small number of our townspeople who were interested enough or shall I say, patriotic pat-riotic enough to take time to attend the services for this boy. He was not killed in actual combat duty but he certainly did give his life preparing to go out there to do the job for you and me. I did not have the privilege of knowing George Golesh. Perhaps neither did you but that should not be the question in our minds. There should be one paramount thought. He was a U. S. Marine who gave his life in line of duty. He demands our respect and honor. We could at least take time out for his funeral service. We all do a great deal of talking about what must be done for the boys. How much do we really do? In this particular par-ticular case, how much did we do? We erect honor rolls and plan for memorials and what not. These things all mean absolutely ab-solutely nothing if we fail to show our respect to the boys when their bodies are returned to us. It seems to me that it would have been a very nitfe gesture ges-ture and certainly a patriotic one to have flown our flags at half-mast, also to have asked our business establishments to suspend business at least for the few minutes that the first military funeral was passing through our streets. Do we really and fully realize that we owe these boys a tremendous debt one which we can never fully pay, They are offering their lives for us. They, too, would enjoy home, relatives and friends just as we are enjoying them. There is, however, a war to be won and they are out there doing it not you and I. The sad part of our tragic losses is the fact that the boys' bodies will not, in most cases, be returned to us so that we can bury them as we would wish. When one is returned to us why not give all that we can ? None of us would like to believe that this is an indication of the procedure we will follow when the boys return home after the war. We do wonder, however, what will be shown to the boys in the post-war period when we do not show due respect and honor to one who has given his life in the service of his country. Will we go on after the war the boys home and forgotten complacently believing that we are the ones who have really done something for our country? Again, people of Bingham Canyon, let us ask ourselves "Where was I the day services were conducted for George Golesh?" Please God that we shall not lose another boy! Should it happen, however, let us not again fail in our duty to those who have given their lives that we may live. The Reverend Daniel E. Leahy |