Flags of My Father

A lunch stop at an old farm near Hawley, Minnesota near Fargo. Two twins, both in their 80's, great me at the door. The Norwegian accent tells me "you look like your father." And they knew my father well. They travelled with my father over fifty years ago, a tour of islands like Saipan, Tinian, and the most famous of all, Iwo Jima, with many other U S Marines. Engel and John Bergseid were household names for me growing up. My father saved Engel's life on Iwo, and that event bonds the two families fifty years later. An emotional lunch stop on our adventure west. With the movie "Flags of Our Fathers" opening today, it seemed especially appropriate to have lunch in a non-descript farmhouse with two brothers who watched the flag raised with my father.