thank you.
I remember the WWII guys.
My father who served in Europe.
the men he hired, vets, parapaligics to do fine electrial work. All died when I was young.
The men who drank too much on weekends.
The men who had a hitch in their step courtesy of a missing limb and a prothsetic.
The men who didnt say much. But were kind, in their own ways.
Some are still around.
I have coffee with one five mornings a week at the VFW.
The men who returned with PTSD (not a ‘thing’ back then). Dad was on the winter Death March out of Stalag Luft 3 when a fallen airman grabbed his pant leg. Dad couldn’t stop to help or he would have been shot.
When I was a child, I used to kiss my dad to wake him when he was napping. He always awoke with a start, a shout and a horrified look on his face. He once told me that he always saw that airman’s face when he awoke from sleep. The only affliction he was diagnosed with was loss of hearing. At the end of his life, I did ask him if he was tortured in the POW camps and he said no. These conversation were the only things I remember.....otherwise he never talked about his wartime experiences.
One of my Dad’s best friends and golf buddies back in the early 60s was our across-the-street neighbor...I liked “Joe” immensely as a funny, jovial man’s man and for his kindness to all of us kids...
I also remember Joe drank a lot, often way too much and would come home hammered drunk...I asked Dad why Joe drank so much and he explained to the kid I was that a lot of the guys had trouble with alcohol after “the War”...Later on I learned Joe was a Ranger at Pont du Hoc...
One of my Dad’s best friends and golf buddies back in the early 60s was our across-the-street neighbor...I liked “Joe” immensely as a funny, jovial man’s man and for his kindness to all of us kids...
I also remember Joe drank a lot, often way too much and would come home hammered drunk...I asked Dad why Joe drank so much and he explained to the kid I was that a lot of the guys had trouble with alcohol after “the War”...Later on I learned Joe was a Ranger at Pont du Hoc...