The Homecoming of veteran

The Homecoming of veteran

This photo of a World War II veteran reunited with his son reminded me of Bryan Pflaum, who I interviewed for my book ‘The Nameless Names.’ 

Bryan had provided a DNA sample in 2010 that helped to identify his uncle, Ray Pflaum, who was one of the Fromelles missing.

I asked Bryan whether he ever reflected on the Great War.

After pondering for a moment, Bryan said that the Great War was a ‘distant thing’ for him. 

Rather, he said, World War II often occupied his thoughts. 

As a child during the war, he remembered having haunting nightmares of the Japanese coming and tying his parents to the peach tree outside the house’. 

But his most vivid and reoccurring memory was of an elderly stranger walking up the family driveway in 1945.

It turned out to be his father Howard returning from the Pacific campaign.

An unexpected homecoming.