On May 2 came liberation, courtesy of the 86th Infantry. "One of our men broke down completely when the trucks arrived ... the men looked like they were in a daze and had to be led around like babies ... Some POWs in the convoy were full of anger. ... many ... had taken rifles and ammunition and they were firing into the air or shooting any animal they saw ... The transportation officer stopped many times to try to get them to stop shooting but to no avail."

At last, home; family; civilian life. And gratitude. "I have so very much for which to be thankful, and I am very proud to have had the honor and privilege of serving my country."

A popular song of the post-Pearl Harbor period was titled "We Did It Before (And We Can Do It Again"). Do what? Win a war. Win it, why? To get a dirty job done -- so I imagine ex-CWO Harry Thompson saying. Similarly, the just-returned POWs and the troops in Baghdad and Mosul.

Americans are very good at doing what has to be done -- chins firmed, pride spilling over "for the honor and privilege of serving."

National possibilities, it would seem from about any angle, are far from exhausted.