One of the lucky ones

For one ex-POW, war is an unforgettable hell

TOWN OF WALLKILL — Kenneth Knapp was at the Town of Wallkill Memorial Park Monday morning, a short walk from his home on Rockwell Avenue.

He listened to the speeches of fellow veterans. And along with former U.S. Rep. Ben Gilman, he laid a wrea th at the brand-new World War II veterans memorial.

These are the easy things to do on Memorial Day. Remembering why he does them is not.

"After you get out, you try to forget," Knapp said. "But you can't."

He was born in Livingston Manor in 1917 and moved to Middletown in 1929 when his father got a job working on the O&W Railroad. He was drafted in 1942 and sent to Europe as part of the 28th Infantry Division.

He turned 27 on Dec. 17, 1944. Two days later, the Germans captured him in the Battle of the Bulge. They marched him 454 miles between prisoner-of-war camps over the next six months — the number is on his car's license plate. When he was liberated by British soldiers in May 1945, he was so weak that he could only eat baby food.

Read all of Keith Goldberg's story in the Times Herald-Record.

Comments

[Saffi]

The newspaper needs more stories like that - ones that don't try to find a silver lining, that don't try to "on-the-other-hand" the meaning of someone's life story. I was waiting for, and thankfully never found, the line where the writer diminished Mr. Knapp's life by somehow implying that, on balance, there was any glory found in the destruction of millions of lives.

Whatever history might say about whether the was was necessary, Mr. Knapp is clear: World War II was a terrible, horrible time and he refuses to make us any feel better about it. He doesn't dwell on it, but he won't make any excuses for the hell that war ALWAYS is.

...

Anyway, I was thinking about what a good article that was - - until I read further down. Some hate-filled creep felt the need to spew in the comments. What kind of a loathsome excuse for a human would exploit a ninety-year-old like that?

The entire point of the article was that war is horrible, and instead this pathetic jerk uses it to indulge some violent revenge fantasies. Some people have no soul.