Living tribute to S/Sgt. Lewis T. Haas,
In Memory of his 9 fellow crewmen, 452nd Bombardment Group,730th Bomb. Squadron,
United States Air Force, B-17G Heavy Bomber,
9 crew Killed In Action over Germany, February 10, 1944.

Also, In Memory of his beloved brother, Cpl. Cene Floyd Haas,
Killed In Action March 1, 1945

Sunrise Tribute given in honor and in memory at the National Cemetery,
Point Loma, San Diego, California, May 1999. Lest we forget.

PROGRAM: Daybreak

CLAUDIA BUSATH: Haas, Lewis T. ASN 39556128 S/Sgt (aka:Uncle Lew)

My Uncle Lew, your Great Uncle, was assigned as a tail gunner on a B-17 Bomber in the second World War. Lewis was a young man who had married my mother's sister, Helma Richards, your Great Aunt, and they had a baby boy named Kenneth. When Lewis was in Europe flying bombing missions over Germany, his B-17 was involved in a mid-air collision. Although in an aircraft that had been torn apart, he somehow managed to pull himself out of the wreckage and deploy his parachute just in time to be snagged in a tree, breaking his fall and saving his life. His other fellow crew members were unable to do the same and perished.

Your Great Uncle was alive, but he was in German territory and was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp. He endured the deaths of his crew, the cruelty of the prison camp for about a year and then the forced death march for 3 months before being rescued by allied forces (the French, I think). His survival was difficult, his memories painful, but he struggled on and never forgot the men of his crew. He later learned that his beloved brother, Cene, had also not survived the war. After his rescue and recovery, he returned home to build a new life with his wife and his son. They had two more children, Lucene and Elaine. He worked hard, provided well for his family and built a life and a character that they all could be proud of.

In the final analysis, this is the ultimate act of defiance a survivor has against the ravages of war. It properly honors the memories of those who fell. Your Great Uncle has honored his fallen brother and crewmen and all of us in just this way. Your Great Uncle Lew has been special to me throughout my life. I have just a little knowledge of what he experienced in war, but a much better understanding of who he is. I know that he inspired me at an early age. His experiences and his courage to go on have helped to guide my life in some of my own darkest hours. It is unusual that one life can touch another so profoundly with such sporadic contact, but it has been so. We will all have a chance one day to ask our Father in Heaven 'why'there is war and why bad things happen as they sometimes do, for truly only HE knows. I do know, however, that God does not cause war, mankind does. And I know that God does not bring about evil, but mankind sometimes chooses it. I've finally lived long enough to have learned to trust God. I believe one day the reasons will be revealed to us, and we will understand.

Your Great Uncle, who has always remembered and honored his crewmen would want us to honor them today as well as his brother, Cene. All of these men fought for our country, for our safety, for our constitution and our freedom. All that we have today is because of them. They did not fight because they wanted to. All of them hoped to live and return home, but they knew it was possible they would not. Through Lewis Haas, the memory of these men has been honored and kept alive with great devotion and faithfulness. Now it's our turn to remember and never let them be forgotten. Every memorial day for the rest of our lives we should honor them, and all of those who gave their lives. And, every memorial day we should remember the awful price of war, that it should never happen again. I want you young people to look at the small white crosses as far as your sight can stretch. May we gain an understanding of the greatness of our loss from this sea of white crosses. There are - so - many.

May God bless every one of you who rest here and in all national cemeteries at home and abroad, and all heroes' graves on the land, on the sea or where they fell. God bless the survivors, whose pain and gratitude have kept alive the understanding of your sacrifice. May God one day bring peace to every heart, dry every tear, reunite every loved one, and spare us the company of those who would bring war. God bless those who came home from war, for they have been the keepers of the flame, the hope in our grief, our greatest generation. God bless those of us who have never been personally touched by the horrors of war, that we may be wise enough to learn from history and to safeguard that which precious blood has purchased. God grant us the courage to finally love each other, even our enemies, enough that this may be so. Amen

JOSHUA BUSATH: Uncle Lewis Haas'Memoirs

NATALIE BUSATH: Reading the e-mail's (to understand the background)

NATALIE BUSATH: Presentation of the Flag

SONG:
'MY COUNTRY TIS OF THEE'
(Verse 1)
My country tis of thee, sweet land of Liberty, of thee I sing
Land where my Fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride,
From every mountain side, let freedom ring.

JOSHUA BUSATH: Reading of the narnes-.

MOMENT OF SILENCE

FAMILY PRAYER: JESSICA BUSATH