Today, November 11th, 2026, America pays homage to the many US veterans who served our country. The conflicts they fought in were scattered all over the globe beginning with the American Revolution to the Forever War today in and around Iran..
I am not sure of who was or who was not a Veteran in my family earlier than my father, who joined up in 1929. My family did not talk about war. My father joined the Amy Air Force. He wanted to learn to fly and it was one of the only outfits that was hiring at the time if one had the right qualifications.
My Uncle George spent most of WW ll as a POW in and around the Phillipines. He survived the Bataan Death March, but came home weighing only 105 pounds and was 6 " shorter than when he enlisted.
My Uncle Herb island hopped as a Jarhead in the Pacific during WW ll. He never once mentioned what he did in the war in my presence. I did know he was a rifleman and in the thick of it. Aunt Helen would only say he had an awful time, mentally and physically.
My brother Doug managed to skirt any combat. He enlisted in the Army in the early 1960s. As he had a talent for languages, he spent most of his hitch listening to Russian and E.German broadcasts, marching in a color guard (he was tall and blonde), all the while drinking boat loads of beer in Germany.
My nephew, Bobby, was lost during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His loss came under mysterious circumstnces that were never satisfactorily explained by the Navy.
These are the family members who first come to my mind when celebrations of our nation's veterans' sacrifices happen. They are a very small number of the millions of American soldiers who have served our country since the American Revolution.
Today is a day to recognize their sacrifices and committments to our country's safety and way of life. Today is not a day for politics, just remembrance. So, I will stop now.
Keep it 'tween the ditches ...............
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Here is "Lay Me Down in the Cold, Cold Ground", attributed to "Shuttering Thru Life"
This tune brought tears to my eyes. The grave yard scene in the beginning reminded me of the two times I went to Arlington Cemetary to bury a parent.
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