Memorial Day Weekend

Heath, Chris, Tony, Patrick, John, Miranda, Carlos. A few friends of mine who never made it home.

These were all great Americans. I spoke their names out loud today when the Air a force flew over the park

Hard to get them all out without choking up. And very thankful nobody was there saying my name

I was thinking today that as far as I know I didn't know many who went, and everyone I knew who fought came home. However, some of them came home with PTSD and/or having been exposed to chemicals with terrible consequences that made their lives hell in many ways. We remember them, too.

((((((( Heath, Chris, Tony, Patrick, John, Miranda, Carlos )))))))

(((((Bss'sPeeps)))))

whenever one crosses my path, will tell a veteran im glad they made it back and hope they are ok

know none who died in the line

This thread got me thinking about people I've known who fought in a war, and I believe that the only person I've ever known who did was my father, who was in the Pacific for virtually all of WWll.

My entire life he would never talk about any of it, but one day when I was about 8 - 10 he opened an old trunk that sat in a corner of our garage that I never remembered him opening before. His army uniform and other army stuff was inside, including a bayonet and a pistol he said he smuggled in when he returned. I thought it was all super cool and while rummaging around in it I found a small box that rattled like it had small stones in it.

He immediately snatched it back and he wouldn't tell me what was inside it, which naturally piqued my interest so I bugged & bugged him about it. Finally, he sat me down and told me that there were gold teeth from Japanese soldiers in the box. He began crying (one of only three times in my life I saw him cry) and he told me that war does strange things to people, that it had done strange things to him.

My father was a stoic man who never showed much emotion, but he was also one of the kindest, gentlest men I've ever known so I was shocked when he told me that. He said he was ashamed of what was in that box and had forgotten that it was in the trunk. But he didn't throw it away, he put it gently back in the trunk and very solemnly closed it back up. He said what was in that trunk represented the four years he spent at war and that he was never going to open it again, and he never did.

At the time I didn't understand why, but in later years I realized that closing the trunk was his way of closing off his four years of war. Now some 50+ years later that trunk is still in my family's garage, and it hasn't been opened since that day. I think about opening it now and then, but it always seems that it would be like opening a tomb, disrespecting not only the Japanese soldiers but also my father's memory, that somehow it would disturb him even now if I opened it.

I suppose I'll open it some day, as opposed to it being thrown out or sold at a yard sale after my brother and I croak, but I see it almost every day and I always think of my dad and how a horrible part of his life is locked inside.

When I was a little kid I thought war was cool. I loved the TV show Combat and I loved war movies. I had toy guns and my friends and I played war often, but the day my father told me what was in that little box and I saw the look on his face and the tears in his eyes was the day I began to understand that war truly is hell, and I didn't want to play war anymore.

Thank you for sharing the story, Tom.

It pierces my heart contemplating the damage and hurt war did to your father and family, and by extension to all of us.

Always honor and remember those who, while just living their lives, get caught up in the tides of war. Damn you rich murderers and thieves, always finding more lethal ways to destroy families and communities to feed your insatiable greed. Your rule over decent people is not ordained by God. It does not always have to continue like this. Let's change reality.

"War is not healthy for children and other human beings."

Lorraine Schneider, who created this, was a close friend of my parents. It is part of the landscape of my youth.

Part of my youth too. I realized I had gotten the quote wrong. Thanks Judit for posting the iconic poster from the sixties.

I remember that poster being on the wall of one of my elementary school classrooms. A teacher would likely be fired if they did that now.

what roar said about Tom's story

and that quote/pic was patched onto something of the 1st deadheads of my tribe, so it's nice to see again

((((((peace to Us all))))))

^brick