A reader asked this week if the quotes we included under the picture in the editorial space of last week’s Press—quotes by Charles Sumner, Bertrand Russell, and Eve Merriam—were “intended to honor or denigrate those … who served our country with honor, dignity and integrity.”

We would like to assure readers that the quotes included were most certainly meant to honor those who have served and those who continue to serve our country. It has been my experience that people who have served in our Armed Forces do not celebrate war, though they serve dutifully and with courage. We included the quotes as a lamentation about the suffering war brings to all, most especially our soldiers, who do indeed serve with honor, dignity, and integrity.

Our veterans have given much to this country; many have endured physical and psychological wounds that have left them changed forever.

My father and mother both served in World War II. My mother was an Army nurse, and my father was an Army first lieutenant, serving as an aide to General John Copeland in General Patton’s 65th Infantry Division, which liberated the Ohrdruf concentration camp in Germany at the end of the war. The only time my father talked to me about his service was when I was an adult. Tearfully, he told me one day about seeing bodies “stacked like cordwood” when his unit rolled into Ohrdruf. He never mentioned it again. I have often wondered about the pain he bore throughout the years following his military service, having witnessed such a horror.

After their passing, my parents were both buried with full military honors. I honor the memory of their military service, and the service of all those who have bravely gone into harm’s way in answering our country’s call to duty.

And personally, I pray for a time when no one has to endure the horrors of war any longer.

—L.K.