I wonder how they would feel today to see how the country has changed.

Peace

My dad was a Marine serving mostly in the Phillipines during WWII. Sometime in the months after dad’s death in 2000, the local VFW created a wall hanging glass display containing Dad’s military items and the folded flag that had covered his casket. That wall hanging is on the wall at my brother’s home.

I have wondered if I was conceived at Camp Pendleton, when my mom took a bus cross country for a last visit with my father before he shipped overseas. My older brother was 14 months old when I was born in 1943. My younger brother was born in 1946 and my ‘little’ sister in 1952.

Maha, my dad had two middle names! Only his mom ever called him by his real first name, while in the community he was called by his first middle name, which most folks assumed was his first name. But most of the family just called him by his nickname, ‘Bud’.

Here’s a salute to you, G.F.E.B….. aka ‘Bud’.

My dad’s side has a couple of Civil War ancestors. There are two Hezikiah’s from Ohio in there somewhere. My mom’s mother’s side leaned toward the ministry - two of her uncles were ministers and two aunts married ministers. One uncle, Congregational minister Robert Bartlett, lived in Plymouth House (the tenth generation of Bartletts since it was built in 1660). He wrote “The Pilgrim Way” and “The Faith Of The Pilgrims,” among 25 or so others.

Both my dad and my husband were in the Navy. My dad and his twin brother (just barely 18) hovered off the coast of Japan at the end of WWII, waiting to go in if necessary. My husband’s service was during the Vietnam era (he lost his mom to cancer during boot camp). He was on the aircraft carriers, USS Bennington and USS Ticonderoga.

My busy husband is at the town’s Memorial Day service at this very moment, playing violin for the veterans. I can picture them all standing there, wearing their American Legion hats, tearfully stoic for another good buddy they lost a month ago. The WWII vets are leaving us. The Vietnam vets have not felt the desire to step up into their place (it was a different war, a different time and their bonding is of a different sort). My husband is the exception because he’s an artistic and loving people person in a small town. I’ve been to a few of the American Legion “soirees” and I enjoy their company. They’re straight out of the 40’s and I cherish every one of them with potential tears in my eyes - for the day will come, sooner than I’m ready for, when they’ll fade into our past as well. Like all of us, they have their good sides and their not so good sides; their angel hearts and their stubborn blind spots. We’re human beings after all. We honor those in the past, recognizing the humanity in us all. We’ll be in the past one day, too, and who knows what they’ll say about us?

“All flesh is grass. All generations, at heaven’s hidden motivation, arises, blooms and falls from grace. Another quickly takes its place.” (Pushkin)

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

Thanks for your lovely link, too, Daniel. I felt like I was there with you. The past is humbling.

I grew up with no family…so I have no one to remember….but Andy Rooney from 60 minutes said something about this day that I could really relate to(he first said it last year and it was repeated this year)…basically he talked about his war buddies ,killed in service..and he pointed out he remembers them everyday, not just today..He thought instead we should spend this day reflecting on the children and try to figure out a way to make sure no one has to remember them after they are killed in wars too…I don’t have kids either but the thought just rang so true…..

Part of remembering should be trying to avoid repeating the event that took so many lives…part of remembering should be trying to find solutions that don’t end in death.Part of remembering should be a hope that our leaders understand the lives that they hold in their hands have value as human beings, beyond their use a troops.

IF we remembered…IF we took it seriously we would have never allowed the current war to happen.We don’t need new people to remember.What we need is a leader who understands we don’t make new people to remember based on “wars of choice”…they should only be used as a last resort as a means to defend ourselves.

As for your Nephew..Maj.Robert John Thomas and all those serving now or in the past , THANK YOU…my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Thank you. The National Archives online photo database has a wealth of World War II photos, but most of them are of planes and guns and boats. It’s hard to find photos that include soldiers’ faces. The Library of Congress has great photos of GIs in World War II but for most of them only thumbnails are online.

On this day I tend to think of both my parents, now gone. On November 11 I tend to reflect more on my father’s service in Mark Clark’s Fifth Army, in Italy in World War II, and my great-uncle’s service as a telegrapher in France in World War I. And to feel so sorry that I never learned much about their experiences, when I had the chance.

www.thoughttheater.com