LETTER from CHIP NORTHRUP

Greatest Generation Veterans Would Have Cringed

To the Editor:

My father was a U.S. Army captain in World War II; Nancy’s stepfather was a lieutenant in the Navy and Nancy’s father, Alfred Valjean Prather, was an officer in the 442nd Infantry Regiment, which was composed largely of Japanese Americans.

The 442nd was particularly adept at killing Nazis.

Although they are all gone, none of them would be particularly amused by the recent Trump Insurrection or the fact that it conspicuously included neo-fascists, including a fellow who sported a “Camp Auschwitz” shirt to the coup d’etat, to the merriment of his co-conspirators.

After the war, my father, who was in the Army Corp of Engineers, was involved in the dismantling of POW camps.

After he returned to civilian life in Texas, he became strongly pro-Jewish, proposing the first Jewish member to the Dallas Country Club, and hiring Jewish people, including an Israeli engineer.

When I went to Brown University, he encouraged me to join the “Jewish fraternity,” Alpha Pi Lambda, which I did.

Both of our fathers spent a good part of their youth fighting fascists. They never dreamed that we would have to fight them here in America. But fight them we will. With alacrity. After all, it’s a family tradition.

CHIP NORTHRUP
Cooperstown