Uncle Robert

The children, the grand children, and even the great grand children know him as Uncle Robert. His picture hangs on a wall in many of their homes. Visitors are always drawn towards his picture to gaze for awhile. Such a manly, handsome, young, and Christian smile, topped by a military cap. No silver screen actor could portray the face in that picture. What is his story? They all want to know. He was born the oldest of eight and raised as a farm boy in Afton Wyoming. He lived in a log cabin below the Grand Tetons. Beside the cabin was a stream where the family drew water. In Afton winters, the snow would pile as deep as a young pine tree. Uncle Robert was always older for his age and would drive a team of horses ahead of the sleigh bus as he, just a young school boy himself brought the neighborhood children to school. His childhood knew the great depression. But his father did well enough to have the only radio in the area. Neighbors would gather in the log cabin to listen from the radio to what was happening in the world beyond Afton Wyoming.

As Uncle Robert grew older he loved to dance at his high school, ride horses, and hunt along the base of the Grand Tetons. In time, the radio would bring news from the world beyond that war was coming...and it came for the young farm boys in Afton Wyoming. Uncle Robert's father was an old World War I soldier. He feared Uncle Robert going into the infantry, so he encouraged him to enlist so he could choose where he served. Uncle Robert chose to serve with the 10th Mountain Division. For a man who loved the mountains, it was the natural choice. It's now the famed 10th Mountain Division. The 10th Mountain was America's first special forces unit. They trained in the mountains of Colorado and readied themselves to fight against the Nazi mountain fortresses. Uncle Robert was a well respected soldier in that division. He fought bravely until the last days of the last battle of the 10th mountain Division. As World War II drew to a close, he was shot down and killed in a mountain tunnel by a beautiful lake in Italy.

News of Uncle Robert's death reached his home in Afton in the spring of 1945. His mother was never quite the same after that. For years after she would often rock for hours in the log cabin gazing at the picture. The one that the children, the grand children, and even the great grand children have on a wall in their homes. It is the picture of an American sacrifice for freedom.

But it's not the end of Uncle Robert's story. I have stood by his grave which rests below the Grand Tetons. It's a place where Heaven meets earth. At his grave, The Sun plays on the leaves of the Aspen trees and the mountains breeze whispers that one day Robert will Rise again. In the day when "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away".

For now, his memory and his sacrifice for his family are remembered as visitors gaze at the picture on the walls of the children, the grand children, and the great grand children.