Happy Memorial Day

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I’ve never been in the military. When I was 17 I applied to the Naval Academy and for a Naval ROTC scholarship. I was an alternate to the academy and told to apply again for the scholarship.
I had done both to keep my mother off my back, not because I had any great desire to be in the service.

My mother’s father was drafted in 1917. That was back when if you had enough money you could pay to have someone else drafted in your place. Some one else paid, and my grandfather was picked in their place.
While camping on some field with the army, he got pneumonia and almost died. It did permanent damage to his lungs. (Not, mind you, that it stopped him from smoking.)
They didn’t want to let him out of the service, but wanted to keep him away from sleeping in the damp conditions that had given him problems, so they transferred him to the Navy. The logic of putting someone in the Navy to keep them away from water has always escaped me.

Both of his sons, my uncles, went to the Naval Academy. My Uncle Ted went on to get the rank of captain, but not a ship. (He was a civil engineer and in charge of building the bases and such.)
My Uncle Jack, who was considered the trouble maker of the family, went on to be the first officer of one of those subs with the nukes. (Yes, giving the family trouble maker the keys to nukes is like joining the Navy to keep away from damp conditions.)
Both of their sons joined the Navy. One is still in it over in San Diego. The other is a federal marshal, who has been called back at least once and sent to Ethiopia. (Not really a place I associate with a lot of Naval action.)

My father was drafted in 1943 into the army. He had tried to get out of it, but couldn’t manage it. His uncle ran the draft board, and said it wouldn’t be fair for my father to get out of it when no one else did.
Although my father was quite intelligent, it was not the kind of intelligence that worked well in the army. He also had the bad habit of believing people when they told him things.
So, once when he was guarding a prisoner and said prisoner told him he wanted to get a haircut to look good for his trial, my father let him go off to the barber shop. The man was found several hours later in a bar with his hair uncut, and my father got in a fair bit of trouble for that.

One of my friends when I was young joined the Marines right out of high school. He died in a terrorist attack almost 30 years ago.

I am not in the military and never have been.
But, there have been a lot of folks important to me who have. And, still are.
So, I’ve got a good bit or respect and appreciation for them.
Happy Memorial day!