Veterans’ Stories

Veterans Day is right around the corner. For many of us it will involve attending a memorial somewhere. I’m not always able to attend one unless it happens to be on a Saturday. Often times my granddaughter sings at them.

For others it will mean we go to a restaurant that remembers our service, and we get a meal on the house.

And for others, it means going to graveyard and placing a wreath on someone’s grave. Often times we do it with children or grandchildren to whom this person is nothing more than a stone with a name on it, and a fading picture in the family album.

The actual day is something I can’t take off. I hang out the flag early in the morning, and then I sing the song the Seven Dwarf’s sing (“I owe, I owe, So it’s off to work I go . . .). But I wear my Army jacket, and wear my hat that says U.S. Army on it. It’s not that I expect anything free. I support the boys and girls that are still out there holding the line.

Then I’ll remember. I’ll get home, pour myself a rare glass of Jack Daniels and toast the people I served with. I always pour a glass for the ones that aren’t with us anymore in remembrance of them.

Over the next several days, I’ll be posting and reposting stories of different vets. Some might even be true.

Also, Veterans Day itself, Joy Neal Kidney (who is married to a Vietnam veteran) will be guest blogging here. She’s the author of Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for an Iowa Family During World War II, a book (due out on Amazon by the end of the month) that gives great insight into the lives of men at the spear point during WW II, as well as the families they left behind here in the states. A highly recommended read, and a book the proves history isn’t only about the famous but about those who actually make it.