Today is Memorial Day, May 31, 2021. It is a day set aside to honor those who gave their lives defending our freedom. I am incredibly grateful to every veteran that served and died as well as all of those who served and survived. I am reminded of the excellent book The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw. Most of my generation can relate to the people in the book because they were our fathers. My father enlisted in the Navy at seventeen. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the war ended before his service began. He was a radar operator on an aircraft carrier, the USS Boxer. He served between WWII and the Korean conflict. He left the Navy to marry my mother before the ship sailed to Korea.
Like many of those profiled in the book, he rarely spoke about his service to his kids. He told of being on a reconnaissance flight in a two-man plane and looking down at the carrier from the plane before landing. He said it was like trying to land on a postage stamp; the carrier was so small in the vast ocean. He also had a tattoo of an eagle on his bicep. This is not unusual for sailors at the time or for anyone today, but my father discouraged his boys from getting any. He said he knew it would be a mistake to go on liberty with one of his shipmates, but he did and ended up with a tattoo.
My father was an honest, hardworking man who did the best he could to support his family financially and emotionally. He coached little league baseball, helped with cub scouts, and took us fishing and camping. Though my dad did not give his life or serve in the military during wartime, his enlistment showed his willingness to die for our freedoms. That is why I think of him on this Memorial Day, and I know there are countless others whose willingness is the key to our freedom, even if they did not serve during wartime.