Remember sacrifices of those who served

President Ronald Reagan established Nov. 12, 1988 to recognize the activities of our armed forces in China-Burma-India (CBI) during WWII against Japan.

I was one of the 40,000 plus members of the U.S. forces in that war area.

History tells us about the American Volunteer Flying Tigers who flew for China and destroyed substantial numbers of the enemy's planes.

History tells us it was the U.S. Air Transport Command whose crews flew vast tonnages of supplies over the so-called mountain ridge Hump to aid our Chinese allies. Flying in that part of the world gave the crews the worst flying weather anywhere. Hundreds of aircraft and their crews were lost in remote jungles and some were never recovered by our search and rescue teams.

History tells us about our Army engineers who built the Ledo Road, a military highway to connect with the old Burma Road which the Japanese advance had closed, a roadway that all the experts said could not be built. They also built a gasoline pipeline, which ran more than 700 miles from the Indian seaport Calcutta all the way to China. Our men strung communication wire along this trackage.

History tells us about Merrill's Marauders who fought along with the British Army, Australian and Indian companies in the jungles and swamps of Burma.

History tells us about GI nurses and medics who treated and comforted the sick in outpost jungle huts, some 'under Dr. Seagrave, the famous Burma Surgeon.

History also tells us the enemy suffered the greatest land battle defeat at Imphal on the border of India and Burma. A memorial in the Allied soldier's cemetery tells the message of the dead soldiers:

When you go home tell them of us and say, "For your tomorrow, we gave our today."

Louis M. Santangelo

Mount Prospect