For many, June 6th recalls the D-Day Invasion of Europe, when Allied forces began releasing the noose from around the neck
of Europe.
Accurately named, the “Greatest Generation”, men and women from all age groups, all walks of life, all education levels, all
sizes and shapes, colors, persuasions, and beliefs, came together to begin dismantling the most vicious regime in the history
of the world and to release the stranglehold that Nazi fascists had imposed on a free world.
For me, now, June 6th will commemorate the loss of yet another part of that Greatest Generation.
How fitting and appropriate it is that my father-in-law, yet another one of the thousands of the Greatest Generation passing
each year, chose to leave this world on that historically significant date.
Technical Sergeant Frank Dercher didn’t carry a weapon as he waded ashore in North Africa, Sicily or mainland Italy. His job
wasn’t, as one of his commanding generals famously said “to kill the other guy and make HIM die for HIS country.”
Sergeant Dercher carried a medical bag. As an Army Medic, his job was to repair, if at all possible, the physical and mental
damages caused by pure carnage. It was a perfect fit. There was never a cross word to be spoken, a dirty job to be refused
or any lack of compassion or empathy from this gentle warrior.
I am saddened today, not for Sergeant Dercher, but for myself. For, I will miss him dearly.
Keep a watch over those of us you’ve left behind, Dad. We will all need your wisdom, direction and understanding.
In Memoriam
Frank Dercher
April 1, 1920 – June 6, 2010