As a young boy I grew up during the Second World War. I closely followed the progress of the War in both the Pacific and European campaigns. It was only natural that I idolized our military leaders. In particular Gen M’Carthur caught my fancy. His brilliant island hopping plan eventually brought the Japanese Army to its knees. Later he was placed in charge of the Korean “Police Action” when the North Koreans invaded South Korea. Against every ones advice he staged an invasion at Inchon behind the North Korean Army and drove them back to the Chinese border. When the Chinese came to their rescue M’Carthur wanted to bomb the Chinese supply lines in China. President Truman feared that this might start WWIII and told the General to back down. Since M’Carthur spent his entire career in the East, he felt he knew best the oriental mind and that no such thing would happen and so kept up the campaign to gather support for bombing. This led to his firing.
In 1951 he returned to address the Congress and gave his famous speech ending with the phrase “Old soldiers never die they just fade away”. After that he toured several major cities as a returning hero. In July he was scheduled to visit Boston. They published the Parade Route so I knew where he would be after the downtown visit. Lo and behold he would be passing via Day Blvd. in the late afternoon. At the time I was working at Dorgan’s in the kitchen helping my cousin who was the head chef. I knew if I timed it right I could see the General. I stood on Day Blvd with practically no one near me. When he passed in his convertible he was standing and since I was the only one there he nodded in my direction. The vision of my hero acknowledging my presence is seared into my memory bank. I can see him today as If it was yesterday.
