Memorial Day

We didn't do much to celebrate. My grandfather was in the trenches in France during World War I. He had horrible nightmares for the rest of his life from that experience, but he escaped the trenches unscathed physically which was probably something of a miracle. I wish I had known him. He died just after my parents were married, about 20 years before I was born.

My father and his brothers served during World War II. After the bombing in Hawaii, they tried to enlist, but they weren't US citizens, so the military organizations turned them down. My father went to work in the shipyards in Richmond, California. After a year, the military was ready to naturalize all comers, so my father and his brothers enlisted. My father never saw any action. He joined the Army Corp of Engineers because he was a civil engineer. The Army, in it's great wisdom, sent him to school to become a civil engineer; they needed more. He did really well on a test they gave everyone in his unit, which was why he was picked. When he raised the issue that he was already a degreed engineer, he was told to go anyway. Considering what my grandfather went through, I am grateful my father did not have a similar experience. His brothers joined the Navy, and they both saw action in the Pacific.

DH's father was also in the Navy. He served in the Pacific, as well. He's gone now, and DH says he never would talk about it, but I wish I could talk to him about it.