I want to wish all of our Vets a Happy Veterans Day. Especially our good friends Aridog and AllenS who often grace us with their hard earned wisdom.
My Dad joined the Army when he was sixteen right after World War 2. He served in Korea, Alaska and Hawaii. He was an MP for part of that time. He was stationed in a prisoner of war camp for a while. He never spoke about it at all but one of his long time buddies served with him and came back to Brooklyn to hang around with him all the time.
My Uncle V was in the Navy during the last year of the war and was stationed on Guam of all places. He was a longshoreman believe it or not. The same thing he did for forty years as a civilian. Sometimes they put the round peg in the round hole.
The last of the World War 2 generation is pretty much gone now. The Vets you meet today are from more ambiguous conflicts like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and all the rest of the messes we have gotten ourselves into in the ensuing years. What is not ambiguous is their service, patriotism and bravery. They deserve not just our respect but our deep gratitude. When they were called they served.
I can think of no more honorable description than that.
Happy Veterans Day.
5 comments:
Called and thanked Uncle Mike, my mom's twin brother. He was a Marine in the Pacific theatre. Thanks to all vets. I thank Inga's daughter here where here cunt mom can't see it.
Was that wrong?
The Korean Vets were often angry about being overlooked. It was a tough conflict. If your Dad was in Korea during 1953, he might have looked up and seen my Uncle in a Navy Patrol plane headed for the NK Coast doing photo recon, monitoring the NK radar signals, and testing the Flak defenses. Sometimes they didn't stop at the NK border either.
Just sayin'.
I'm watching The Longest Day. I remember my old man taking us to the movie theatre to see this flick.
Thanks for this post, Trooper. You do sense the true importance of 11 November. Let me take it a bit farther, although I enlisted at a time 95%+ were being drafted, in the end game we were all the same. You took each others' backs, a precious experience, and a feature that is a bit of a shock when you return to civilian life to, at least initially, not have that binding sense of camaraderie and mutual responsibility. Unlike some (such as the current Sec of State) many soldiers took horrific wounds, healed, and requested return to their units in Vietnam. Think about that and what it means.
Next, for all those who were/are in anyway supportive of the military in dark days, you too, are to be honored...you also are veterans serving in what ever place they were supposed to be at...no Army moves alone.
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