Our only windows into the past are closing fast enough to break the glass.

The world as it was during WWII is quickly falling off the face of the earth. Soon it will be too late to get first-hand experiences. Our grandfathers are all dying off. To live a life of honor in a time of heroes, and then have it pass away as you do, never to be remembered, a peice of history lost forever seems to be a crime worth punishing.
My grandfather was in WWII.
I have never really met my grandfather. I've spent time with him over the years, but I don't know him; and that seems a crime worth punishing as well.
as a writer and a human being, talking to people who have lived through things like this, who have had years to think about them and figure out what these experiences mean is a treasure trove of wisdom that can't be found anywhere else.
I have decided to write a book on his life. How a young boy growing up in Science Hill, the epitome of Small Town Kentucky, had his life changed when he went to war. How he felt as he was growing up, what where his goals before the war, and how did they change after. What things really matter to a man who has stared death in the face and come out dancing? What changed years later? What things didn't change?
I think this will be a major turning point in my life, and it will be good medicine for him as well.
Bill Sweeney, A Life Worth Living, by Cameron White.