My grandfather, Andy Chlebeck, fought for his country as a Marine in the Pacific during World War II. He passed away in 2003. Last year, I wrote the blog, Extraordinary Moments Often Include Everyday Men, that describes some of his military experiences, which included the battle on the island of Iwo Jima.
Around Memorial Day in 2001, I wrote the letter below to him. A year or so later, I sent it to the TImes Reporter, as well as the Louisville Herald, as a Letter to the Editor. My purpose in doing that was to extend my words of appreciation to all of the men and women that have served in our nation’s military. I am sure that the feelings that I expressed to grandpa are very similar to what many others would like to expressed to their loved ones.
A decade or so later, I thought now was the right time to share this again:
Dear Grandpa,
As Memorial Day approaches this year, I have felt the need to write you this letter to try to thank you for risking your life to serve your country. I have been studying World War II a lot in the last couple of years, and the books I’ve read and the films I’ve watched gave me a much greater awareness of what you and many others had to go through to protect and defend what was right. I thank God that I have not had to and hopefully never will go through the experiences of war that you courageously volunteered for. I can’t even imagine how terrifying and difficult those times must have been. But I do deeply thank you for enduring those times so that I could live in such a great country with such great freedoms. I am trying to be more appreciative of those freedoms (that I usually take for granted without thinking about all of the terrible sacrifices that many have made to provide those freedoms). I hope that I can do a better job of using the freedoms that I have been blessed with.
Thank you once again. I truly admire you both for your courageous, selfless efforts of long ago, and for being a great, loving grandfather for these last 30 years. You have been a great role model for me to watch and I hope that I can be at least half the man you are. I am truly honored to carry you name (though I’ve gotten tagged with the ‘Mac’ thing somehow!). I eagerly look forward to introducing my future son, Andrew, to you in the next couple of months, and sharing with him what a “Great” great-grandfather he has.
I love you.
Andrew John ‘Mac’ Aljancic
God bless our servicemen and women on this Memorial Day weekend, and God bless America!