I find it disheartening that some Americans actually complain about Veterans Day activities and, within themselves, feel no appreciation of their meaning. It indicates that they cannot relate our existing freedoms to the sacrifices that enable them or why we recognize these brave men and women. We have heard it before “Freedom isn’t free.”

When I was growing up, I too had no relational basis to the meaning of this statement nor the magnitude of sacrifice made by fellow Americans so we may have the freedoms we take for granted. One day, I was sitting with one of my uncles and we got onto the topic of World War II and he, for some reason, opened up to me and began describing a period of his life, I discovered from my aunt, he kept close hold of for many years.

He was assigned to the 106th Division, which during the Battle of the Bulge was quickly overrun. For three days, he and several other soldiers attempted to find a way through the German forces while living off the land and getting food from Belgian farmers. They were eventually captured and marched for days in bare feet because the Germans took their boots. It was the middle of winter so they used their shirts and underwear to wrap their feet.

As they were marched through German villages, the civilians would throw bricks and rocks at them. If you fell out of line you would be shot or bayoneted. They were taken to a prison camp where they were fed some sort of grass soup made from dried bricks of grass and some bread. They raised rats so they would have some meat. When being moved to another prison their train was bombed and they escaped for three days until being recaptured and taken to another prison camp.

He described how his friends died from disease and frostbite injury. They lived with lice and welcomed the infestation of rats and mice because it meant more to eat. Eventually they were liberated by Russian forces and set free to march more than 100 kilometers until they found U.S. forces. He returned to the United States and started a small business, never describing or talking to people about his experiences. Why he opened up to me, I am not certain but, to this day, those were the most influential minutes in my life.

My uncle passed away several years ago and I realized that few people were aware of the magnitude of the unimaginable sacrifices he and many others have made.

During this Veterans Day I will visit a veterans cemetery and look at the graves with my perspective and feelings of appreciation for what these veterans provided us as a nation. I just hope I have the opportunity to have a B-2 bomber fly overhead so those few that sacrificed for the many can see that they are not forgotten by those carrying on in their footsteps to protect our freedoms.

If you can’t relate to this, or you find the noise level of a B-2 to be more of a concern than what it represents, I truly feel sorry for you.

Daniel Ward lives in Oskaloosa.