[21twelve]

I once had an old couple from our church that I was given to go visit in the nursing home from time to time. I saw the man had the globe and anchor tattoo - “Oh I see from your tattoo that you must have been in the navy?”

“Yes” he grunted.

His wife was much more talkative.

“Oh yes. Harry was in World War II.”

“Well - than you for your service. Do you mind me asking what you did?”

“I drove a Higgins boat.”

“Oh - the landing craft, wow.”

“Oh - you've heard of the name? Not many people know that. Yeah - it was quite the experience.”

Wife pipes up “Harry was at D-Day!”

I just got up, shook his hand and thanked him again and sat down. As I said, it seemed like Harry wasn't the talkative type, so I changed the subject to the family photos on the wall.

But - amazing for me (now 58 years old) to meet such a man. This was probably 10 years ago now. He ended up starting his own business, raising a family, etc.

My uncle was a bombardier and completed all of his 25(?) missions over Germany. Never knew about that until his funeral!

[ebshumidors]

When I was a big in NJ, the guy two houses up would give me a Dr Pepper (smuggled in from MD) and tell me about Okinawa. His second son in law (first one died) was a Marine in Nam. More stories. Then I joined the army. Has to show off my 101st Airborne patch.