WWII Merchant Marine

Submitted by Bryant Hopkins (United States), Sep 25, 2008 at 12:10

I am a veteran of the WWII Merchant Marine. After hostilities ended, I was engineer on the first American merchant ship to enter the South Philippines, picking up a load of copra. Our visit to the community of Jolo nearly cost us, the whole crew, our lives.

The Muslim population was incited to "kill all infidels." They didn't, though, and thirty four innocent men survived. My opinion of Islam and Islamists has developed over the years, from that week. Daniel Pipes is a secular prophet. We fail to listen to him at our peril! I wonder, though, given a strong "Western Culture" that we now enjoy, are we afraid? Of what? Individual assassination! A bomb in the newspaper's office: a "mysterious" gun shot to the head of an individual who speaks up? We embolden radical assassins by submission. Here at home! Europe seems to be lost. Has the "Greatest Generation" died?

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