SOS to USA? History shows we’ll respond

When the Philippines on July 4, 1946, aided and encouraged by General Douglas MacArthur, achieved independence, it was a day of great celebration. What a contrast to the day in 1781 when America achieved her independence after George Washington and his troops, allied with the Marquis de Lafayette and the French, defeated Lord Cornwallis’s British army at Yorktown. In World War I when American troops arrived in France, General John Pershing, symbolizing France’s aid in the American Revolution, told the French: “Lafayette! We are here!”

When Typhoon Haiyan devastated Tacloban on the island of Leyte, in 2013, the Philippines sent out their SOS to the world: “We are in want. Send help!” The United States responded by sending a giant aircraft carrier through stormy seas with water, food and medicine. The message was clear: Filipinos! We are here! What was the name of that aircraft carrier? The USS George Washington.

Don Woodard Fort Worth