It is Memorial Day again and time to spend a few moments thinking about the men and women who have served the nation both voluntarily and by compulsion. My father and all his friends are gone now, men who served in North Africa, Northern and Southern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the fathers and uncles and sometimes the mothers and aunts of the friends of my childhood. Most of them came back to lives of one level of success and happiness or another. Some were haunted all their lives by some demon. or another. Some did not come back at all.
It is also time to think about the people I knew as a child and as a youth and as an adult who went off to Korea and to Vietnam and to the Middle East, and some with special sorrow. It is also the fit time to think about the children and grandchildren of those people who find themselves in the armed services now.
So, a special salute for R. K. Updegraff, Jr., CPT, MC. Charles Mikesell, CPT, MC, Larry Jackson, 2LT, INF, William Higgens, 1LT, USMC, William Walker, CPO, USN, Norman Killburn, PFC, USA, and hundreds and thousands of others. Rest in peace and thank you.
AN (Navy E-3) Howard Mark Koslosky: fellow 1965 Anchorage West High graduate, fellow Naval enlisted man, fellow Vietnam Vet. Died in a non-hostile plane crash off the coast of Vietnam in 1969, body never recovered. I have dreams about him from time to time.
I salute my dad who did his time in Korea in the Air Force and then in the National Guard. I also salute Mike who just came home from the Army with brain damage from being blown up in a humvee. He is 23 and has had three brain surgeries and is a fine young soldier!He even works at the base while recovering. WTG Mike!
My Grandfather. Retired Colonel. WWII, Korea, Vietnam. Still kicking, though the mind is going.
I will be planting flags on graves tomorrow morning, and participating in a flag ceremony on Monday. I will also wear sunglasses all day so that the tears are not as obvious.
My great-grandfather, Civil War veteran, captured at Bull Run. Lived an interesting life, then shot himself dead in the wooded hills of Southern California. He’s buried there in a numbered grave.
My 4th great-grandfather, 1st LT and veteran of the Revolutionary War.