The words of apology U.S. Army Lt. General Lucian Truscott said 70 years ago to dead soldiers still have a huge impact on the troops who are battling ISIS, Al-Qaeda and countless terrorist groups in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
On Memorial Day 1945, Truscott was sent to Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, to speak on behalf of America and President Harry Truman, reported The Spread It. No record can be found of the memorable speech delivered by General Truscott during that Memorial Day, but Bill Mauldin, known for his World War II cartoons featuring the unshaven infantrymen "Willie and Joe," was in the audience and shared the remarks in his memoir, "The Brass Ring."
Mauldin revealed that Truscott faced the freshly dug graves of thousands of soldiers and apologized.
"When Truscott spoke he turned away from the visitors and addressed himself to the corpses he had commanded here. It was the most moving gesture I ever saw. It came from a hard-boiled old man who was incapable of planned dramatics," Mauldin said, according to CNN.
Mauldin added: "The general's remarks were brief and extemporaneous. He apologized to the dead men for their presence here. He said everybody tells leaders it is not their fault that men get killed in war, but that every leader knows in his heart this is not altogether true. He said he hoped anybody here through any mistake of his would forgive him, but he realized that was asking a hell of a lot under the circumstances. . . . he would not speak about the glorious dead because he didn't see much glory in getting killed if you were in your late teens or early twenties. He promised that if in the future he ran into anybody, especially old men, who thought death in battle was glorious, he would straighten them out. He said he thought that was the least he could do."
Truscott was the leader of more than 9,000 men of the 60th Infantry Regiment and 66th Armored Regiment in the landings at Mehdia and Port Lyautey in Morocco. Aside from that, he also guided the Fifteenth United States Army and Fifth United States Army during World War II.
Up to this day, his words of apology still live and continue to inspire the military of today.
