When the call of war and service sounded, it was answered not only by the Glushakow brothers, but by their sisters as well. Anne served as a captain in the Army Nurse Corps 194th General Hospital in France. Her sister, Miriam, served as a first lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps 12th Evacuation Hospital and spent the war taking care of soldiers in Patton’s Third Army.
Herbert Glushakow enlisted in the Navy and served as a seaman on the USS Mayrant and USS Palawan, which was involved in some of the toughest fighting of the Pacific campaign.
Another brother, Jacob, enlisted in the Air Force and served as a sergeant in England. He went on to become one of Baltimore’s leading artists, with paintings now in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Phillips Gallery, and other major collections across the U.S.
The last of the five Glushakows who served the nation in World War II passed away in 2002. Moses died on February 25 and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia; Anne died two days later and was buried with full military honors at the Arlington Cemetery in Baltimore.
The Glushakows served with valor and courage in the great Jewish tradition of service and patriotism, and I am proud to be their brother-in-law.
When Fred Rasmussen, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, was writing Moe’s obituary and became acquainted with the family’s record of service, he said something that applies so well to the Greatest Generation and the five Glushakows. Quoting Shakespeare, he said that “We shall not see their like again.”
But the Glushakow family is just one of countless examples of the service, sacrifice and bravery that American Jews have always been ready to provide. When duty to country calls, Jews are among the first to answer and the first to serve.
As much as any group, Jews have learned the value of liberty and that its protection is worth fighting – and dying – for.