The closing of an era

From The New York Times:

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii, Dec. 7 — Since that terrible morning 65 years ago, the survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor have been called heroes, V.I.P.’s of the greatest generation, and the first American witnesses to the last world war. But more and more, the members of this exclusive group are being called something else: endangered.

With age and aching joints slowing even the most hardy of old sailors, marines and airmen, the major national survivors group has decided this year’s anniversary gathering will be its last in Hawaii.

“We’re getting about as extinct as the dodo bird,” said Mal Middlesworth, the president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, which traditionally meets here every five years. “The way it’s going, our next national convention here we could hold in a phone booth.”

This is so very sad. Time is a juggernaut which grinds down everything in its path. The generation which defeated the Axis and saved civilization is disappearing. I count myself extraordinarily lucky to have known my grandparents and had decades with them. They who had living memory of the Wright Brother's first flight, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the crash of '29, Pearl Harbor and VJ day.

These men and women saved the future.