Veterans’ Day
Monday November 12th 2012, 12:18 am
Filed under: Family,History

My dad and his two brothers served in WWII, and my grandmother headed her county’s Red Cross knitting for the troops effort, knitting as much as twelve hours a day to try to bring her boys somehow safely home. She had rheumatoid arthritis. I don’t know how she did it.

One of them assured her the war would end after he got overseas. He could not tell her he was one of Oppenheimer’s men and would be the physicist on the Enola Gay. So many lives were lost–but so many more, in the end, were not.

My thanks to all who serve and who have served, and my gratitude for all those who’ve been able to come home.


8 Comments so far
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My dad and his 5 brothers. My step grandfather. My other grandfather was in the Seabees until he return home when his daughter was dying. My first father in law.

I have two encased folded flags from coffins on my mantle piece.

I thank them all.

Comment by Afton 11.12.12 @ 6:36 am

Deep gratitude here, too.

Comment by twinsetellen 11.12.12 @ 7:20 am

My grandfather–WW1–Battle of the Bulge
My father–WW11–Phillipines
My husband–Korea
My foster son–recently retired as Adjutant General of National Guard
My grandson–finished his second tour in Iraq, then Afghanistan, now statewide
My granddaughter’s husband–lost in Iraq.
Veterans’ Day is pretty special to us.

Comment by Sherry in Idaho 11.12.12 @ 7:46 am

My Dad was in the Battle of the Bulge WWII. He and his buddy volunteered to drive extra troops to the bridge at Remagen in Germany. Had they not arrived in time the bridge would have been destroyed by the enemy, thereby cutting off access for the allied troops. It was memorialized in a movie in the 50’s or 60’s. I’m so proud of my Daddy!

Comment by Jody 11.12.12 @ 7:59 am

What a touching, personal post. Thank you, Alison, and thanks to all who have served, still serve, and to those who support them.

Comment by Channon 11.12.12 @ 9:05 am

Maybe, maybe one day all this useless, senseless killing will stop! Maybe. When one considers that this planet we live on is the tiniest of tiny specks in this universe, we should be humble, not fighting. Incidentally, I once heard ‘humble’ defined as ‘a sense of proportion’.

Comment by Don Meyer 11.12.12 @ 9:52 am

my grand father was a WWI vet — he was in the Navy as a medic — he never talked about where he was (I should request his service records and see if I can find that information) — I remember him wearing a poppy every year on Veteran’s Day — today I did some research and discovered the “why” of that tradition (which seems now to be disappearing)

it’s based on a poem titled “In Flanders Field”

my dad was in WWII — also in the navy
and my brother in law served in Viet Nam

a fine group of vets here

Comment by Bev 11.12.12 @ 10:27 am

One uncle served in the Korean War.
Another uncle served in Vietnam.
A cousin served in Iraq.
A nephew completed two tours in Iraq.
And my son’s former girlfriend served in Iraq as well.

The elders didn’t talk about it. This latest generation did, and does. Horrifying. It has to stop.

There’s a song lyric by Michael Franti….you can bomb the world into pieces, but you can’t bomb it into peace.

Here’s to peace.

Comment by DebbieR 11.12.12 @ 3:32 pm



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