What makes a legend? Who really are heroes? Why do we fight wars? Who really wins? These are all questions we may never come up with the answer to. I am going to tell the legend of Jersey Jim. See, he grew up as a kid in between world wars knowing his dad fought in “the war to end all wars,” World War I. As he grew he listened to the radio, hearing about World War II and its sounds and battles cries. Eventually he even heard the victory. As he listened, he watched his WWI veteran father crack open a beer before bed every night so he had one ready in the morning to start the cycle again. Is this really the breakfast of champions? The horror of war made his father soulless and the bottle his cure. Jersey Jim was just about 10 when the second war ended. Then came along the movies, news articles, and stories in school about victory and heroes.

As Jersey Jim became a teen in post-war America, the country had to pull itself out of the rations and constraints of war. Consumerism and a working middle class was emerging. Jersey Jim went to work at the bowling lanes because school just wasn’t for him, then he decided to join the army. He went from Paterson to Fort Bragg to be in the 82nd Airborne. The 82nd was the paratrooper division where they taught you to jump out of airplanes – and if you were lucky enough to not get picked off on your way down, you just may hit the ground safely. They even trained to land by jumping off the second floor of the barracks, sans chute. Lucky for him the war had passed him by. Once it isn’t a story or a movie, war doesn’t seem that much fun at all.

We have been in combat so many times since then and lost thousands of lives. Fighting war has changed over the years, from ground combat, to more air assaults, to drone strikes now. Through these times no one on the ground has painted a pretty picture of it all, and rarely nowadays do we get adequate reporting or images from the media. Over half a million people have died in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Our military bases in the Middle East have been targeted repeatedly, with not much information known about the destruction. War just seems to be about money, occupation, real estate, power, control, and a line in the sand. It just nullifies the word humankind.

Well, Jersey Jim did his three years in the army in America and then some time in Europe just training. It was during peacetime – lucky for him. He came home and moved to Florida just before we started messing around in Vietnam. He met his match and started a family. He got a good union job that you could keep a long time and eventually get a pension. He didn’t have to fight in no war. Oh but he loved his war films. The Sands of Iwo Jima, The Dirty Dozen, and From Here To Eternity, watching them while longing to be a war hero.

Jersey Jim was my dad. Later in life I took care of him, made him a different type of legend as “Duplex Planet Dad,” and eventually he was accepted into a Veterans Nursing Home. He enjoyed those last few years of his life. His real battles in life with things like alcohol, smoking, and gambling were mostly conquered. The one that took him though was COVID 19. It also took about a dozen other vets at the nursing home. See, our president was nonchalant about the seriousness of this virus, and the state’s governor was just worried about opening up commerce and remained skeptical of the illness, its spread, and the vaccine. The governor’s promises of testing the vets at the center were late or missed, and opened the window for a bunch of guys to get COVID. By October 2020, 10% of the residents died and so did some of the staff who were not at fault. Sometimes the battle we finally lose is one our own government may have had a hand in.

I wrote a song about him right after he passed but I put it on the back burner. Earlier this year when the U.S. helped Israel invade Iran, I heard the 82nd Airborne was called up to go to the Middle East. It made me revisit the song and have the realization about how anti-war it was. The band helped me quickly get it ready, and one of my students who made a previous video for us helped shoot and edit it. The video is here for viewing and it just might become legendary.

Jersey Jim was a jumper in the 82nd Airborne. “Jersey Jim” the video stars Mr. Entertainment, Nikki Nico, MLE and Johnny Mahone. Directed, shot and edited by Owen Ortiz.