FOR OUR VETERANS

I have this job in my old age now of cleaning out closets and throwing away things I don’t need anymore. I always knew it had to be done someday but I always thought I would make it her job. I was good at that in the years we were married. But she fooled me and she left first, so now I’m left holding the bags and many boxes. But you ask,” How does this tie in with our veterans?” Well let me get to that. In an old box, high on a shelf the other day, I found an old uniform. Now there have been a lot of us that wore uniforms over the years but there was no doubt that this was an army uniform. It felt like it was made out of mostly wool and the insignias on the sleeves said this man was a Tech Sergeant and it had four bars on the sleeves and several patches that I believe represent the outfit he was in. Also one gold button that represents the infantry. There was only one family member this could have belonged to and that was my father-in-law. My wife had kept this uniform after he passed away. My son was named after this man so I have since passed it on to him. He has the flag that was spread over his coffin and all of his medals. But let me tell you a little more about Sergeant Leo Maus. Leo joined the army in 1939 and when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor two years later he was sent to fight in the south pacific. He fought in the Philippines and several other small islands but as the war was drawing down he was sent to the battle of Okinawa. He survived that bloody battle but a lot of his buddies didn’t. Although he was wounded three times, he came home in 1946. After the war Leo came back to his hometown and bought a gasoline filling station in the town of Staples. That’s where I met his daughter who later became my wife. He was a gifted mechanic, back when you didn’t need a P.H.D to fix an automobile. He was a proud veteran who would always snap to attention when the flag was presented, be it a parade or a sporting event. I asked him several times about his battles in World War II but he would only say, “The war is over, lets live in peace.” Leo was the best father-in-law I could have ever had, a wonderful dad to my wife and a loving grandpa to our kids. When I laid that uniform out on the bed that day after I found it, I had tears although he’s been gone for 40 years. I had tears because this was the uniform of a hero who left his blood on the beaches of Okinawa and came home to one last victory march and then went on with his life where he had left off and all he would say about it, is “The war is over let’s live in peace.” What a humble man. In his later years Leo had a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He should have been in a wheel chair but he would walk around dragging his dead leg behind him and holding a cane in his one good arm to steady himself. He refused to let anyone help him unless there was no other way to get where he wanted to go. He lived out the last decade of his life in the old soldiers home in Minneapolis. He’s buried in the National Cemetery in Minneapolis. God bless Leo. God bless all of our veterans.