Current Event Analysis
WWII
Analysis
This article that I have chosen to write about, runs along the lines of never forgetting. It is about a 71 year old daughter who never met her father, 1st Lt. Edward C. Whaley. Sharon, the daughter of Lt. Whaley, never got to meet her father because he had died as a pilot in World War II. This article talks about the love that Sharon carries for her father, and all of this love comes magnificent stories that she has been told all of her life by family and loved ones of her long lost father. Sharon wrote in a section of the Dallas Morning Newspaper how she “never got to meet [her father], but [she’s] missed [him] every day”. The articles tells us that Lt. Whaley grew up in Dallas and had to get a job at a young age to support his family. It tells us how he couldn’t afford to go to flight school so he joined the military to become a military aviator. The article shares that Lt. Whaley and his crew were on their 37th bombing mission, on May 29, 1944, and a few second away from the target, their engine was shot and only two men made it out alive. 46 years later, Sharon’s mother had a grave stone inserted in East Dallas and Sharon finally had something tangible of her father.
Personal Opinion
I believe that this is a wonderful and touching story. The fact that the daughter only had memories of her father through other people close to him and she loved him through and through, that is amazing to me. And how after 71 years, Sharon is still putting her fathers memory out there for everybody to see, her father would be so proud to have his daughter grow up that way. Sharon’s father was a hero and that is exactly the way that he was described to Sharon, which was the right and the honorable thing to do by her mother and all of those grieving around her. I was happy to read that the mother remarried and continued on with her life. I have heard that that is a hard thing to do but sitting in the same chunk of time is not fair to yourself or those around you. This choice kept Sharon’s love for her father right where it needed to be.