Our Family's Captain America

My husband's uncle Fernand "Pete" Bernard

As I watched Captain America, the part where Steve Rogers, who had been made the super soldier, is sent out to raise money for war bonds struck really close to our hearts. Let me be clear, I never met my husband's Uncle Pete and unfortunately neither did he. But having gone through my husband's mother's papers I came to know a charismatic young man lost to the greed and insanity of the three madmen without whom the conflagration of the second World War. I cannot thinkof him or write of him without tears and my eyes were not dry at the movie last night either.

Yes, Pete was our Captain America and yes he was one of those guys they used to raise bond money, but what he could have become; that we lost forever and this is the only way I can know him. The armed Forces may make men and women into soldiers but it is war that takes them away, sometimes physically and sometimes through the damage to their hearts and minds.

This photo made the connection between Pete and Captain America

Tom Brokaw pointed out in his book, The Greatest Generation that the vets of WWII rarely discussed the war. They knew there is no grandeur in it. They weren't there to "kill Nazis" they were there, seriously, to save the world from a bully as dangerous as any evil ever imagined.




Pete joined the Marines almost a year before Pearl Harbor.  His brother Ceofred joined the Army. Only one came home again.

When my mother-in-law died in 2004, Don and I discovered a box of memorabilia which not even my husband had seen.I had some time so I cataloged it all, removing tape and glue and deacidifying it to the best of my ability.



There were three major components to my Mother-in-law's one was a Parade Magazine that came out in October of 1942 with two covers. One with Pete and one with Prime Minster Churchill. Pete was a lot easier on the eyes. The second and more poignant and personal was a book of messages that Toni had put together from the people in Lawrence. Pete never got to see it.  The third was a scrapbook of the many appearances they sent Pete out on, the telegrams, cards and letters he and his brother sent home.

 We do not often enough remember the sacrifices made by the military personnel and their families in war when we call on them to go into battle, towards the gunfire.  Pete and Fred were those guys.

Does your family have a Captain America? I would love to know their story. you can email it to steph@fangswandsandfairydust.com or comment below. Thanks




 

Part of the note book Toni was compiling for Pete.

There is greatness and heroism
in his sacrifice
but there is no glory in war