I just read an article in the New York Times about the outbreak of World War 1 exactly 100 years ago.  It brought back memories.

I had a French teacher at USC who fought in the Great War.  He used to tear up when talking about it so many years later.  He once told us that France lost 60,000 men in one battle.

Driving across Northern France in the 1970s when I lived there, you would see endless fields of crosses.

The war was triggered by a number of blunders.  It also ended the Ottoman Empire and changed the map of Europe.

I watched the film Gallipoli alone and got really choked up.  I couldn’t go straight home;  I stopped by a friend’s home for emotional rescue and support.  It was devastating.

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