Veterans

Press reported. Sixty-eight of the residents who tested positive for the disease have died.

The disease is also claiming the lives of some of America’s rapidly dwindling numbers of World War II veterans. There were 433,708 alive in September, down by 134,636 from the year before, according to the VA. COVID-19 killed 100-year-old Philip Kahn, a veteran from Westbury, New York, who participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima and earned two Bronze Stars, according to his obituary in The New York Times. His death marked a tragic bookend for his family. Kahn’s twin brother, Samuel, died as an infant during the Spanish flu pandemic.

The U.S. military is still considering how to commemorate Memorial Day, given the stringent precautions it must take amid the pandemic.

“These are unique circumstances,” Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston said during a visit this month to Fort Stewart near Savannah. “We do have to honor our fallen. We are going to do something, but I’m not sure exactly what the final plan is. It is not going to be large crowds.”

The ‘one-two punch’

In Rome, Rita Hopper stayed by her 75-year-old husband’s bedside, kissed his hands and reminisced about their lives together as he died on March 28 of complications from COVID-19. A former hospital lab technician, Bob served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Rita suspects he contracted the disease from her after she attended a church service in Cartersville where there