This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
CopperCicada · M
On both Veteran's Day and Memorial Day I mostly think of my godfather. He served in the Pacific under Admiral Spruance.
He made it back. Was drunk as a skunk, passed out in a phone booth when he returned stateside. But all of his stories.
Little things. Like we could never grill chicken around him because it smelled like burning people. None of us never knew what happened. He never said. He spent his service delivering huge calibre naval ordinance to the coordinates Marines called in.
He told the story of a friend of theirs (he and my father). They went to school with him. He came back a war hero, piloted a very important bombing mission over Europe targeting German petroleum. Got the parade, the whole thing. He went home and blew his brains out, still in uniform from the parade.
So I think of those for whom we have graves. Those who died and we don't know their names. Maybe an extra in a story we know. Those who died just a little. Like my godfather. And those who took their own lives. Grief, trauma, survivor's guilt.
He made it back. Was drunk as a skunk, passed out in a phone booth when he returned stateside. But all of his stories.
Little things. Like we could never grill chicken around him because it smelled like burning people. None of us never knew what happened. He never said. He spent his service delivering huge calibre naval ordinance to the coordinates Marines called in.
He told the story of a friend of theirs (he and my father). They went to school with him. He came back a war hero, piloted a very important bombing mission over Europe targeting German petroleum. Got the parade, the whole thing. He went home and blew his brains out, still in uniform from the parade.
So I think of those for whom we have graves. Those who died and we don't know their names. Maybe an extra in a story we know. Those who died just a little. Like my godfather. And those who took their own lives. Grief, trauma, survivor's guilt.