On this Memorial Day, NPR Morning Edition listeners share memories of loved ones who died while serving in the military.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In honor of Memorial Day, we asked listeners to share stories about service members and their families who lost their lives. We’ll start with the story of Theodore King Higgins. While stationed in San Diego in 1964, he received Navy orders to go to Vietnam. Here’s his daughter Katharine from Oregon.
KATHARINE: He was lost at sea when his A-4 Skyhawk crashed into the sea while on approach to the USS Bonhomme Richard.
MARTIN: Katherine was 3 years old when her father died.
KATHARINE: My mother always said that Ted was a true patriot, that he died for our country. And I don’t remember my father, but I do know that he was smart and he was quiet and he died so that Americans can live in freedom.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Hope Sutton from North Carolina remembers her father, Carl Sutton, and her grandfather, Hans George Faltin. She says her grandfather was a pacifist who volunteered to serve in World War II.
MARTIN: He was a mechanical engineer who led troops that went into towns after they were reclaimed.
HOPE SUTTON: Their job was to go around and find all of the booby traps or any types of explosives left behind by the Germans.
MARTIN: Sutton’s father, Carl Sutton served in the army.
SUTTON: Although he did not fight in Vietnam, he was exposed to Agent Orange during his service, and he subsequently passed away from leukemia.
MARTÍNEZ: Kirsten Foster from Michigan spoke about her great-uncle, private first class John Francis Rys. He lied about his age in order to serve in World War II, and he was just 16 years old.
MARTIN: He became a paratrooper.
KIRSTEN FOSTER: He participated in the Battle of the Bulge and then, unfortunately, was killed in action during his first and last jump during Operation Varsity, which was the largest airborne operation of World War II. My family was only ever told that he was dead before he hit the ground.
MARTIN: Rys was 18 years old.
FOSTER: He was just a kid who was in an extraordinary situation and ended up paying the ultimate price because he thought it was the right thing to do. Great-Uncle John is a hero who I hope many others will now be thinking about and remembering this Memorial Day.
MARTÍNEZ: These are just a few of the stories of the many service members we celebrate on this day.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOSEPH SULLINGER’S “SOLITUDE”)
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