My dad went off to the wild blue yonder back in 2004 a couple months before ronald reagan. He didn’t care to be buried in arlington national cemetary—though he had the right to do that. rather he’s laid to rest near his parents in a cemetary in Juniata County Pennsylvania. His wife joined him ten years later.
They had a good life together.
My dad was in the Merchant Marine, but after his ship was torpedoed he quit and went to work with the Corps of Engineers building camps for German P.O.W.s.