Tiny Czech community honors its fallen
At the chain-link cemetery gate, a granite memorial erected in 1984 commemorates those nine young men, all of whom lost their lives within about a year of each other toward the end of World War II. Percentage-wise, few cities or towns in America suffered a greater loss.
Sunday morning, residents of the community that nurtured the boys will, for a little while, recall with gratitude their sacrifice. I suspect they'll also consider, perhaps for a long time afterward, all that might have been for the boys, for their families, for a close-knit, little community.