A Few Good Men

Clovis...such a handsome navy sailor!

A FEW GOOD MEN... that movie was a good one.  Dad and I would refer back to the scene where Jack Nicholson was in court testifying and Tom Cruise was questioning him about his orders.  I still get chills when Jack says, "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!".  We always joked about how people can't really handle the truth.  My dad never really sugar coated things, he told it just like he saw it.  Sometimes even when it hurt my feelings.  I'm so thankful he didn't sugar coat life lessons he taught me and I hope I don't sugar coat the life lessons I intend to teach my boys!  
Memorial Day always makes me think about my dad, even when he was physically here.  He was in the Navy during the Vietnam War.  He never talked to me much about what it was like.  However I learned just from watching him and being with him how to respect and honor those in the military.  I think there is something about going to war at such a young age that changes a person.  I'm totally speaking out of observation here, I've never been in the military.  In the time I've spent with my dad through the years I knew that his experience in Vietnam followed him.  I really believe it made him a strong believer in living each day as if it were your last.  How could it (going to war) not make you look at life differently than those of us who have never been there?

I look at this picture and many many things come to mind...
-how so very young he was going off to war from small town in the panhandle of Oklahoma
-how handsome he was, but I must say he just got better looking with age!
-I often wondered if he had just a little fear of the unknown
-I think about my Granny having to let him go, not just go off to college but to go overseas to fight in war
-I think about how innocent he was when he left home & how much he'd change and know when he came back home
-I think of the time when we were talking, shortly after the Gulf War was ending & he talked about how great it was that the people of this country were honoring the troops & soldiers because when he came home from Vietnam people were very rude & threw food at them
-I think his time in the military made him very political...he talked about how the government could send young men & women to war without much of a care
-But most of all I'm thankful that he came home...married my mom...had me...so that I could have my house full of boys!

My dad was very artist and would draw or doodle a lot and something he'd always write on paper was this saying.....NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF HIS COUNTRY!  I'm not sure where this came from but it always made me stop and think.  So with this Memorial Day I will thank soldiers, past, present, and future.  I will pray for them and their families as they make many sacrifices and I will think about my dad.  Not as if I don't think about him everyday but I will think about his time in the Navy and how that shaped him.  Dad often said,"I've made my peace with God a long time ago".  When I asked him what exactly that meant he just said,"kid you don't go to war and see and do the things you have to do without making it right with God!".  That always made me really think about him at 17 going to Vietnam and me at 17 living a very spoiled life.  So thanks to all who have served this great country past, present, and future!

Trinity