Writer's Block: In Memoriam
May. 25th, 2009 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perkyrusalka[Error: unknown template qotd]
I attended the local Memorial Day service yesterday. The roll-call of veterans includes over 150 names, plus several members of the Confederate army. 5 of the first list are my great-uncles. One of them is "remembered, but not buried in Edgewood cemetary"-because his grave is somewhere off the coast of Australia, where his submarine was a victim of a friendly fire incident. My great-grandmother was told about it, of course, but she didn't believe it until one of his fellow sailors showed up on her front porch-he was visiting the families of all those who were lost.
Most of my great-uncles served in the military, as well as some of my cousins.. My paternal grandfather did as well; my grandfather on mom's side helped build airplanes. Dad served in Vietnam, and probably would have retired out of the Army if he hadn't known he'd be sent back to Vietnam if he'd stayed.
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Living near Ft. Cambpell gives me funny ideas about military service, I guess. I expect that men, especially men of a certain age, will have served in the military. It was expected, after all, and wasn't war a noble thing? After Vietnam, though, that's different, and I think this area has changed as a result of that. The soldiers come and go and keep the economy afloat, but there's some suspicion of those army guys-troublemakers, the whole lot of them. And I wonder, if you're actually in Ft. Campbell, if there's a way to tell the guys who are "army guys" (the ones who cause trouble, and bring their trouble-making kids along with them) from the "army guys" (the really responsible upstanding types who usually bring along their lovely families). To say nothing of the "army guys"-the ones like the guy who started hitting on me in the mall and followed me into Victoria's Secret.
I attended the local Memorial Day service yesterday. The roll-call of veterans includes over 150 names, plus several members of the Confederate army. 5 of the first list are my great-uncles. One of them is "remembered, but not buried in Edgewood cemetary"-because his grave is somewhere off the coast of Australia, where his submarine was a victim of a friendly fire incident. My great-grandmother was told about it, of course, but she didn't believe it until one of his fellow sailors showed up on her front porch-he was visiting the families of all those who were lost.
Most of my great-uncles served in the military, as well as some of my cousins.. My paternal grandfather did as well; my grandfather on mom's side helped build airplanes. Dad served in Vietnam, and probably would have retired out of the Army if he hadn't known he'd be sent back to Vietnam if he'd stayed.
------
Living near Ft. Cambpell gives me funny ideas about military service, I guess. I expect that men, especially men of a certain age, will have served in the military. It was expected, after all, and wasn't war a noble thing? After Vietnam, though, that's different, and I think this area has changed as a result of that. The soldiers come and go and keep the economy afloat, but there's some suspicion of those army guys-troublemakers, the whole lot of them. And I wonder, if you're actually in Ft. Campbell, if there's a way to tell the guys who are "army guys" (the ones who cause trouble, and bring their trouble-making kids along with them) from the "army guys" (the really responsible upstanding types who usually bring along their lovely families). To say nothing of the "army guys"-the ones like the guy who started hitting on me in the mall and followed me into Victoria's Secret.
