I was born in 1950. My dad, a Navy doc was just recalled just before my birth and after WW2 now sent to Korea. Chosin was one of his first field hospitals. All he’d say about time there - “It was cold”
Recently it dawned on me that most the dads and uncles i knew growing up were vets of WW2 or Korea. They were shop keepers, carpenters, loggers, doctors, dads.
And its now I appreciate that most, if not all, were likely carrying serious baggage from those days. But somehow carried on. Things buried.
Dad made it to 89. Dementia set in at the end. He started to speak of Korea and how he kept his hands warm in surgery. It was cold.
Don’t just thank a vet only today of all days. Give them a God damn big hug. “Thank you for your service” does not even start to thank them for what veterans have done for us.
My Dad was a Master Sergeant in the Battle of the Bulge / Colmar Pocket area although he was the senior JAG NCO and not in front line combat. It was only when I was middle aged that he described to me his first big shock of how close and real that combat was as he was standing in the chow line in the rain and he and his buddy pulled up a canvas back flap on a deuce-n-half to see if they could use it to be out of the rain for a few minutes. He said that the back of that parked truck was full of the bodies of GIs “stacked up like cord wood.” They quickly re-secured the canvas.
I still remember the shocked awe in his voice in those four words.
:: “Thank you for your service” does not even start to thank them for what veterans have done for us.::
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You are so right.
“Recently it dawned on me that most the Dads & uncles I knew growing up were vets of WW2 or Korea. They were shop keepers, carpenters, loggers, doctors, dads.”
Yes,recently it dawned on me too. Thinking back, almost everyone’s Dad & even some mothers were veterans.
It turns out that my high school Civics teacher, who at that time was a Reserve Major, was a 2nd Lt. in the first wave at Normandy. Few knew that. He never said anything about. Nobody even talked about that kind of thing. I only found out
when I read his newspaper obituary.
Some kids might have mentioned their
Dad was Marine somewhere in the South Pacific, or at the Bulge, or countless other strange sounding places. But we didn’t think too much about the significance of those places because everybody’s dad had been overseas somewhere at the time. No big deal then. A big deal to me now.
We owe so much to that generation in the way they raised us, the examples they set & how they did their best to raise us as good citizens.
“Recently it dawned on me that most the Dads & uncles I knew growing up were vets of WW2 or Korea. They were shop keepers, carpenters, loggers, doctors, dads.”
Yes,recently it dawned on me too. Thinking back, almost everyone’s Dad & even some mothers were veterans.
It turns out that my high school Civics teacher, who at that time was a Reserve Major, was a 2nd Lt. in the first wave at Normandy. Few knew that. He never said anything about. Nobody even talked about that kind of thing. I only found out
when I read his newspaper obituary.
Some kids might have mentioned their
Dad was Marine somewhere in the South Pacific, or at the Bulge, or countless other strange sounding places. But we didn’t think too much about the significance of those places because everybody’s dad had been overseas somewhere at the time. No big deal then. A big deal to me now.
We owe so much to that generation in the way they raised us, the examples they set & how they did their best to raise us as good citizens.