Atomic Bomb

I met a man today, he saw my USAF Veterans hat and thanked me for my service and informed me he was in when it was the Army Air Corp back in 1944. I thanked him for his service and he started to talk about some islands he visited in the Pacific back then. I asked how the beaches were, he said the beaches were beautiful if and when you could see them. He allowed he was 90 years old and very luck he made it this far. One reason he said he said he was still alive was because there was one beach he didn't have to walk on, because had he walked it then he and I wouldn't have been having this conversation. I've spoken to many WWII vets over my lifetime and while I'm sure some of them could have been waiting to walk on the same beach they never had to either and never mentioned it. What beach in the Pacific was this beach you're wondering, wonder no more, the beach was the island of Japan. Yes, this man was one of the 250,000 men scheduled to die in the invasion of Japan. He allowed that they were told upwards of one million casualties could be expected should the invasion take place. He said they were all overjoyed when they heard the Atomic bomb was dropped and they would live. While he felt bad for the casualties he was happy he was alive. He said if if it wasn't for those 2 bombs, his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren would never have been born and enjoyed life. That also included the offspring of the quarter million men who would have died storming that last beach and those of the three quarters of a million casualties who again would have left no descendants to keep America Free. We only talked for about 10 minutes and when he walked out as spry as he was at 90 I could still see that Army Air Corp man of 18 standing tall and proud. I never learned his name but will treasure these few moments for the rest of my life, as he left and when I think of him from now on I will offer a prayer for him and the others who lived and those who died to Defend the Constitution and the United States of America during WWII and all the wars before and after.