In honor of our Veterans & service men and women on Memorial Day – but most especially in memory of those who sacrificed their lives while serving…
just a few quick pics from our Veterans Park on a cloudy day in early Spring this year:
My father left high school to enter WWII at the age of 17. (I was a late life child, yes.)
I can remember a series of medals arriving when I was a child. He framed them and placed them in his room, but spoke few words about them. He never spoke to me of his time in the Navy, as a matter of fact, except to briefly let me know he had lost a best buddy in a fire on that ship. I never pushed for more information. That seemed like enough for a very young girl to take in. With my mother’s death, we both understood together the impact of such loss and the difficulty in always expressing it – or reliving it.
The war must’ve ended soon after the 17-year-old boy became a man. He returned home, finished high school and went on to college on a football scholarship. By the time I would’ve been old enough to ask the right questions and learn more about his experiences, about his life, it was over too soon. He was killed in a boating accident, along with my uncle (who also left for WWII at the ripe age of 18) before I got to know much more about either of these important men in my life.
Over the years, I have come to know other men and women who have served in various wars and conflicts, and I’ve come to recognize that, even among those who have survived, one thing is for certain. War is hell. Service people all sacrifice a part of themselves, a part of their lives, to perform a work in which its word otherwise sounds so simple – “serve.”
Thank you for your service. Let us not take your sacrifices for granted.
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humanTriumphant 
My country has a particularly chequered past with regards to WW veterans. These things need to be said.
I wasn’t aware Ireland had a stance in WWII other than neutrality, Joe.
Irish.soldiers who left ireland to fight in the war were arrested, tried, and banned from government jobs for life, they were only issued an apology last month. There were many here that shunned them for fighting for the “old enemy”
Again, war is hell…not idealistic. And not so neutral after all, huh? That apology surely came too late. The Irish are a resilient bunch, nevertheless.
Oddly we were much more pro-ally than pro-axis. But in the context of soldiers who served.
I appreciate your thoughtful words of remembrance on this important day.
I’m remembering “wounded warriors” myself today. Hoping to raise awareness and spark conversation, I posted this –
I’d love for you to stop by and leave a comment, if you feel so led.
Thank you for the awareness reminder of being merciful and grace-filled towards people whose battles we haven’t experienced, thus don’t fully understand. I lost a friend from high school to suicide years after he’d been haunted by guilt over being the only survivor in his squad following a terrorist attack. He had never again been the same person I once knew and also battled with addiction.
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