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Rob Ray...Thanks to ALL of you who have served our country.
Stopped by for a while during lunch yesterday to salute some of the vets in the NY parade. Always makes me tear up.
Thanks to my late dad and ALL my late uncles who served in WW2.
I still have the mangled bullet and shrapnel fragments they pulled out of my dad's chest and shoulder after he paratooped into France,and,as ugly as these small "mementoes" are, they make me proud of him. He never talked much about "the war" until late in life.
I always sneaked a look at his army coat hanging with mothballs in the basement...one day,when i was around 16,he finally talked to me about his experiences...first time I saw him cry. I can't imagine what it's like for any soldier to go through battle. Dad took out a small glass marmalade jar from France, in the back of our basement near his unused golf clubs...and in it was the small, dull bronze mangled bullet fragment and a small twisted greenish bit of shrapnel. I knew then how he had gotten those scars.
He then opened up a locked box hidden under his basement tool table,which I never knew was there... and pulled out a sleek black gun: a Luger pistol taken,he told me,from a german soldier. My brother has that.
Also, a quick sketch drawn of dad by his buddy (who was killed when my father was shot,he told me)from inside the plane as they flew over France...the same day as they all dropped and his friend was killed. He at least chuckled and said that his friend Jack was busy scribbling this drawing (on the back of an "Army Hit Kit" music magazine sheet,I think it was called)while everyone else sat with jaws clenched or throwing up in the plane. As everyone was getting up to "suit up",Jack passed this drawing to him and my dad stuffed it in his pocket with his map. He said it was the last words anyone said to jack.
He gently clenched his fists while he was talking to me about this,and let it all out.
He was sent back into action after recovering for 2 weeks and he said it was the longest 8 months of his life.
An amazing,scary thing for a 16 year old to hear all this,especially since I was getting old enough to go to Vietnam...missed that by a couple of years as that war ended when I was 16.
Then we never spoke of it again. Mom was shocked when I told her about it a few years later. She said "he never talked about it with anyone but your uncles."
I then read a few WW2 books where men talked of their experiences and understood more of the horrors,and the great pride military men felt. And their reluctance in discussing issues related to their service.
So...thanks to those who are serving now.
You have my undying appreciation and it makes me proud every time I go to a voting booth. Without you guys I might not have HAD the opportunity to vote.
Words don't do justice to those who served,and,especially to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
I shed a tear for your losses,and my heart is proud for your service to our country.