My wife and I recently watched as our three boys marched off to join Easy Company of the Army's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Their stoic faces belied their youth — ages 8, 6 and 4 — as they faced the horrors of dropping into Normandy 1944 as part of their best friend's birthday party. There was plenty of action, of course, but nothing like what the parents would experience a few days later.
It appears that, as casualties and opposition rise with the Iraq war, even Liam Bowman's 8th birthday party can become fodder in our national debate. Outraged parents complained that we were perverting the minds of children by glorifying war. Yet, there is something to learn from war — as we found out later with a visit to a small Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in rural Maryland.
It began as a birthday party for Liam, who has watched the HBO series Band of Brothers so many times that he can name all the men of Easy Company as easily as his third-grade class roster. Liam's mom, Brigid Schulte, threw an authentic Easy Company party with World War II music, jump wings, Normandy maps, ammo boxes and root beer in the mess hall. With Liam's dad, Tom Bowman, in Iraq covering a real war for National Public Radio, I agreed to play the role of Col. Robert Sink (head of the Airborne Regiment) while Liam served as Lt. Richard Winters, the central figure and commander of Easy Company in the series.
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