Memorial Day Tribute

It's Memorial Day weekend.....

This Memorial Day I find myself at work.
Where else would I be?It IS a holiday isn't it?

On this weekend in the past I could be found usually quite drunk and or high by this time of the night. Hell, you could have found me that way by noon really. I never really gave the holiday much thought besides making sure there was enough alcohol along with whatever else I needed for the weekend. I really should have given it some more thought but I really think that I tried to avoid it on this holiday.

My father was killed in Vietnam on June 30th, 1966 after serving just 40 days there. He was 20 years old and I was 5 months away from birth. I don't remember when I found out about all of this, it seems as if I always knew. For as long as I knew I don't know too much about him. I was told by many that he was a great guy, he would do anything for anyone and he had a strong belief in God. He was the oldest child of eight born to a farming family in western PA. That family, through so many tough times, never lost their faith in God. Although they were over 300 miles away from me while growing up, they gave me a lot of background in church over the years.

I believe my father was a young man who had great potential to do incredible things with his life. He chose to serve our country and to try to be a career military person. That choice took him to Vietnam. While serving there he chose an act of heroism to save the lives of others. That was a choice to give his life to spare theirs. So I would say that yes, he was the kind of guy who would do anything for anyone.

He is not unique among those who have served our country and those who do today. He is unique to me because he was my father. He never had a chance to hold me, to see my first steps, to hear my first words. I never had a chance to hear his words of wisdom that as a teen I would have likely ignored. Although his musical gift was carried on to me I never heard him play guitar or sing..... he could have taught me my first chords. I am told I would have likely been an avid hunter or angler had he lived, he loved the outdoors, as do I.

I was fortunate that I was carried to term through my mother receiving the news of my fathers death. I was also very lucky that she remarried a man whom, although we have different last names, I call dad to this day. He was good to me growing up and did the best he could with what he had.

So this Memorial Day, besides remembering my old ways of polluting my mind and numbing the pain I am trying to remember my father..... a man I never knew. Also all who were lost in combat over the years as well as those who are currently serving our country both here and abroad should be remembered in our thoughts and prayers. Such duty can be thankless and deadly..... and such losses unrecoverable, devastating and lasting.

My father.....