Saving Private Ryan with Enya singing May It Be
This video is a tribute to all those who have given their lives for the American Way of Life. This is a strange combination of beauty with Enya's voice and the violence of war. I'd like to think the Beauty reflects the grace and love that is beyond our understanding and that one day humanity shall realize it without having to wage war.
"Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have one before us, the labyrinth is fully known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world." — Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces)
The ultimate initiate is a warrior. We know the great ones by heart, Odysseus, Luke Skywalker, or Jonah. All of them left the familar scene and went out into danger. They left what is known to explore the unknown. Most of the warriors of the military have entered their courageous path out of a sense of duty. An obligation that they feel is required of them to uphold, so as to fight for the values of their community. There is a generation of American men who seem to have such rare gifts that they are able to sit with the legends that proceed them. They are the generation of men who fought in World War II.
There is one man in particular who comes to my mind. My grandfather is a WWII Veteran and he was only a baker but was blown off a ship in the South Pacific just the same. This is his story.
"The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the "Battles for Leyte Gulf", and formerly known as the "Second Battle of the Philippine Sea", is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and also one of the largest naval battles in history.[1](Wikipedia)
In the Navy, Napoleon became Joe Falany and he was on the USS Suwannee CVE 27. On the morning of October 25th, 1944 the battle stations bell rang. They were right in the middle of the Leyte Gulf ready to do their duty.
Joe Falany was just a baker. He kept all the officers and everyone else fed sweets. So this is not a big glorious heroic stereotype. Most underestimate the little jobs of the military during the war. It is more exciting to hear about the great battles and warriors who stood up to fear and won. My grandfather’s position was that of quiet offering of his service in the best way he knew how. A good medicine man provides some spiritual counsel in the form of food. The Navy was a harsh reality. The USS Suwannee was a floating city of men. Who feeds the men? Who supplies men with something resembling home when they have been away from their mother’s or wife’s kitchen for three years. Who will remind them that they are humans gathering together to a feast to celebrate life? It is the cook and baker that use their medicine when they make food for the soldiers everyday. It is the little things that matter when you are traveling around the world on a boat. Our navy didn’t even have the luxury of Italian or Greek food made by beautiful European women like the army did in Europe. Joe Falany was who put a little of his special medicine into the things that he made, and thus the ship and most of the crew survived including himself after two kamikaze aircraft dove into the ship.
So on Oct 25th, 1944 the battle bell rang and all men had to report to their battle stations. The kamikaze hit the USS Suwannee and my grandfather was blown off, and was floating semi-conscious in the SouthSea. His flesh was on fire. Since he was in the salt water it must have helped with his burnt skin. He unconsciously put his arm around a medical can that was sealed and thus stayed afloat. He floated out there for who knows how long. A CVE boat came looking for him eventually. They found him and wrapped him up like a mummy. They hung all the burned survivors on a medical ship, upside down because their flesh smelled so bad. If the burned victims didn't twitch their heads or move their bodies they would throw them over the side. The Japanese hit the medical ship too. So my grandfather was burned and hanging upside down and the ship were on fire too. They finally transferred him to another ship that was going to the burn unit on New Guinea.
In New Guinea my grandfather was treated for his physical problems but that did not help his memory. He could not remember anything of the explosion or who he was. He was officially missing in action. My great grandmother was notified. My soon to be grandmother was writing my grandfather faithfully and he returned her letters before the explosion. They were courting each other through letters. So my grandmother also knew he was MIA. The priest would come daily and ask my grandfather if he remembered anything and he didn't for two weeks or so. Then one day the priest came and did not ask my grandfather directly if he remembered anything. Then everything came flooding back. He wrote my grandmother first and when they received the letter in Boston, my great-grandmother called my other great-grandmother about his location and condition.
The Boon was his story, his survival, and is amazine attitude and grace about the whole ordeal. Did a mysterious tranformation happen as this great man was blown from the ship and was barely alive waiting for rescue. My belief was that some people are meant for heroic destinies- they are simply made for the job. The can handle the trauma and are able to return and bring with them the grace that got them through such horror.
Not one bitter word was uttered by Napoleon “Sudy” Falany about the war. He always told the story with grace and ease. Sometimes when speaking of the kamikaze, he would say “those damn Japanese” and that was it. He moved to California as many of his generation did after the war. He moved to central California and started his own small fence business. He raised four children and his only daughter is my mother.
I was a small little child when my grandfather, Papa Joe, became like a second father to me. He waited for me at airports to take me fishing. We rode horses, went on secret trails to hidden lakes. He waited for me on boats in Central America so that we could live on a Caye near a barrier reef. At eight years old I was snorkeling in the Blue Hole in Central America. He stole me away like Peter Pan stole Wendy, sprinkled me with Tinker-Bell dust and we went flying to Never Never Land every summer of my childhood. I did not know on a conscious level what this did to me. Just like when you take medication that fights an infection, you don’t see it work, but you feel the difference as you heal. Spending so much time near my grandfather as a young child, was like being in a sweat lodge singing the ancient songs of my ancestors. It helped me know what to be aware of in this life. He reminded me what had value without telling me directly, but showing me what life could be. This was medicine so unknown by most. It was the medicine of high adventure.
There was no righteousness behind my grandfather; he had no wisdom in the form of words, except for simple words that all people could understand. “You only pass this way once” He was all about action, and the most adventurous, hard-working-smiling-constantly-building-things-kind of man. He built fishing camps out in the Gulf of Mexico that still stand. He built a log cabin in Stanley, Idaho. He built a long dock out from a Half Moon Key in Belize. Sudy Falany was not a sit- on- the- sidelines kind of man. His sense of adventure never paled, it held such a wide amount of love that it transformed my idea of what life is and or should be. A true hero never stops exploring and or following his bliss- it is a risk, but if you find the confidence the energy that resides in going out into the unknown and saying yes to all you can then the doors will open. I have been the presence of such grace and walked through a door two with a hero in front of me. He is my grandfather and is a man who walked with a light heart through this life. The boon of this man spins out so wide it is like a net of gems- so that one gem reflects the other out into the eternal.
great storey!
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