It's 3 days until Veterans Day and 17 days to Thanksgiving day.
The picture below is the view from the Veterans cemetery on top of Point Loma, California. The water below is San DIego bay. Half way up on the right side of the picture is the North Island naval air station where I worked ashore before, between and after cruises. Joyce and I had happy years living just outside the base on Coronado. The channel there is where all the navy ships arrive and depart from. It was always a happy day arriving there and a sad day departing from there.I remember sitting on the aft end of the flight deck watching San Diego slowly dissappear as the ship moved ever further away from home.
Veterans day, a national holiday, always seemed strange to me in that while government workers, postal workers, bankers and a host of other employees around the country are enjoying the holiday. Meanwhile, current soldiers, sailors, marines and airforce are all on duty just like any other day.
I personally never had the day off during my navy years or my work in industry. Once when I worked for Burroughs in San Diego I used a vacation day to go to the Veterans cemetery on the top of Point Loma and observe the ceremony there. It was a beautiful ceremony with a bugler playing “Taps” along with a magnificent view of San Diego harbor. That was the best veterans day I ever had. My daughter was in grade school then and I took her out of school that day to see the ceremony. I don’t think she understood what it was all about and maybe doesn’t remember it after 30 plus years.
I want to send out a big Thank You to veterans around the world that are away from their families and their homes. They do their duty to protect this great country of ours, while our government's civilian employees have the day off as a holiday, a holiday which on which veterans fought and died during World War One, World War Two, Korean War, the Vietnam War, the first Gulf War, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, the conglomeration of wars on terror up to this very moment.
One last Thanks to those in service now. I pray God protects you and brings you home at some point.
WOW DAD! Yes I do remember that day! I mean, not vividly, mainly because I don't remember yesterday that well(short-term memory loss issues)but, I do remember that day 'cause we got to spend the hole day together. the ceremony was cool, the rolling hills of grave markers, we had lunch, you took me shopping for some jeans & other things. I remember that singular day on every veterans day, also remember my gen/war/Vietnam friends[I know that every generation has theirs, mine was Vietnam]. I was truly blessed that my dad came back, not 1 of the friends I had as a kid had their real dad(all step-dads)all'cause real dad didn't come home from their tour in Vietnam. Every one of those kids where messed up, I don't think anyone ever talked to them about it in a way that they could understand. truly no winners in war. That said I'M grateful to live here & I will always be thankful ...ANNIE also I have been out of high school for 36yrs now ouch....ANNIE
ReplyDeleteThank you Annie. I too think about that Veterans Day so long ago, yet it is in my head every Veterans Day sine then.
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