I want to thank Bruce for taking the time to do this. I
know future generations of his descendants will appreciate it and it adds to
the great body of stories about the war that are preserved in written
form. There are several things I especially like about Bruce's
story.
I like that he is honest enough to mention some of his failings. This can be difficult for some people. They want to be remembered as paragons of correctness, but we know that to err is human. Bruce tells us of getting fired from his first job because he was caught sleeping and later of being fearful of his ship leaving port while he was visiting overnight a friend on another ship--without authorization. Still later he was reported AWOL when he failed to call in and check after receiving an empty envelope that should have contained his orders to report. After telling of each of these instances Bruce reports, "This experience taught me a lesson."
