Honoring Our Veterans

Read How This Vietnam Vet Came to Appreciate His Veteran Father and Other WW II Veterans.

Igrew up in rural Ohio. Every kid I knew had a father who served during World War II. Some might criticize this: we played war almost every day. Weather, of course being a factor. We played with BB guns and wore our father’s combat uniforms. Some of us looked ridiculous with sleeves hanging down to our knees, and helmets that would roll down the street when we tripped. We hid in a stand of woods nearby. We fought over who would wear what. The prized possession was a fatigue shirt with the screaming eagle patch. It represent the 101st Airborne.

My father was a soldier in Airborne. It made me very proud to know that. I still carry that pride with me today. He died a few years ago at the age of 86. I wish I could talk to him this Veterans Day.

He taught me respect. Every Veterans Day and Memorial Day we would go to the cemetery to pay homage to our relatives, and never missed going to the graves of our fallen heroes. I know my playmates did the same with their fathers.

Our dads did not talk much about the war. Occasionally at our neighborhood barbecue, when the beer was flowing you might hear words like Amsterdam, Normandy and the Pacific Island. No details, but we knew they were there. Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, Dean Martin and the McGuire sisters’ music would play from someone’s Motorola.

They were quiet patriots. Even at the town’s American Legion. They only said things that showed appreciation for one another. They were truly a “band of brothers”.

Tom Brokaw got it right. They were the “The Greatest Generation.”

I serve three tours in Vietnam. A total of 40 months as an electronic counter measures specialist and later as a combat Aviator. I was a mustang. I rose through the ranks and was at the right place at the right time to receive a commission as a Naval Officer.

The things that I learned and benefited from my father’s generation was to always pay respect to your fellow veterans. Be a veteran who helps veterans. When people say “Thank you for your service” let them know the honor you feel. Be a proud American. Serve in any way you can. Right now, there are millions of veterans who need help getting their veteran benefits. Educate yourself about the Veterans Administration. If you served in a foreign war join the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). But do not just join…be an advocate. Get involved. If not the VFW, join another service organization. Our fathers taught the principles for all that, including the need for teamwork. I wish we had listened more to our World War II vets. Now it is the Korean and Vietnam vets who teach us. Soon the veterans of the middle east wars will guide us.

I read that fewer than a million of the men and women who fought and won the great conflict are still alive; they are dying at a rate of nearly 500 a day, according to the Veterans Administration.

Soon they all will be gone. It saddens me.

Those are my thoughts for this Veterans Day 2020.