Comments on: SunSpec: Nearly Non-Existent

By: Amelia

Amelia — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:28:09 +0000

My grandfather took the time about ten years ago to write out his memoirs for the family, only a few copies existed until this summer when one cousin made copies so each cousin could have one.

Then last week my mother was bored and typed my grandfather’s name into Google and the first thing to come up was this:

http://www.borinqueneers.com/node/1283

I knew my grandfather served and that it was hard for him being Puerto Rican and not speaking English when he joined the Army but this opened my eyes. I’ve since started doing some light research on the Borniqueneers or The 65th Infantry Regiment.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:13:04 +0000

This story brought to mind a Dawkins quote I’m rather fond of:
“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.” – – Richard Dawkins, Unweaving The Rainbow, 1998.

I love this story. My family has several “close call” stories, but nothing with this much force. Thanks for sharing.

By: LittleBig

LittleBig — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:05:45 +0000

That is simply amazing. Wow.

By: Helen

Helen — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 21:29:37 +0000

World War I seems to have loads of “close call stories”, each one of them fascinating to me. While fighting in WWI my SCottish grandfather was given the wallet of a dying friend to return to his family. My grandfather put the wallet in his breast pocket, was shot at, but the bullet lodged in the wallet, saving my grandfather’s life.

By: librarianry

librarianry — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 11:35:29 +0000

Great story, Andy! I wish that there were stories like this passed through my family, alas I’m afraid that many of them have evaporated over the generations. I know of a family member who was a part of Guadalcanal during WWII but he never talked about it (for good reason, based on what I’ve read). Another family member flew a B-17 “flying fortress” in WWII, but again nothing was talked about. Hearing that my family participated in events like this (and I don’t mean purely war stories but tales throughout history) helped build my love for history. Out of curiosity did your great-grandfather’s role in WWI push any of your family members (yourself included) into learning more about the event?