I try to thank a vet every day. My Dad survived the Nazi occupation of our ancestral farm in Norway, leaving home at the ripe old age of 13 yrs., to join the Merchant Marines. (As the only male child and the oldest of five children, mouths needed to be fed.) At 21 he wanted to be an American citizen, but back then you needed a trade, a job, and a sponsor for consideration. My Dad comes from a long line of shipbuilders and master carpenters, so a trade was covered. All he needed was a job and a sponsor. With the Korean conflict rapidly building, Uncle Sam granted the last two requirements and Pop was back on a boat, earning citizenship through service and the horrors of war. Seven years later his hitch was up and he and his new bride settled in So. IL to start a family and live the American Dream.
Dad started chemo-therapy two weeks ago for agressive prostate cancer. (Seed implantation and irradiation.) Last week the effects really began to show. Although obviously tired, he wanted to go, so I took him to the VFW to hang out with his buddies for a few hours last Friday. Like we do at the American Legion Hall, (proud S.A.L. here!) we shoot the bull with the regulars, have a beer with a face we hadn't seen in a while, and buy a beer for the new, young, brave faces uncertain of their future, but certain in their determination that our futures will be free from opression. My Dad was Army, my brother an Air Force Eagle driver, and my Uncle Willy lies at rest where he fell on Guadalcanal. Many of my mother's family also fell in battle, but there is little mention of the Native Americans who fought against their oppressors seeking expansion by force and theft. (An argument and a dark passage of history uncomfortably avoided with regularity.
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All veterans who fought for our rights to freedom and liberty deserve a Veteran's Day. Today and every day, not just 11/11. :wub:
