Comments on: Veterans Day

By: Michelle Krell Kydd

Michelle Krell Kydd — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:58:49 +0000

It isn’t easy talking about our parents after they’ve gone. We have to reel in our desire to have them here with us so we don’t break down–even when what we remember makes us smile. It took great courage and love to write what you did and it is incredibly beautiful. Your father’s resilience, the mark of his red ink and the mark he made on you is unforgetable.

My father was in the army during the Korean conflict. He was stationed in Germany and did not see combat. He did, however, do some intelligence work because he spoke German and was stationed in Schweinfurt. My father always looked back on his time in the army with great respect and love. He was indebted to American soldiers who rescued him from Auschwitz and his proudest moment was when he became an American citizen in the Army; his witness was an American Indian. I look forward to finding that document one day. I’m sure I’ll see his smile in the cursive of his signature.

By: A.J.

A.J. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:25:36 +0000

Thank you for sharing this story.

By: Gail Young

Gail Young — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:15:08 +0000

That is a beautiful story.I can barely see to type through my tears.

And here is something I always say on Veteran’s Day–and after Fort Hood, it is especially significant this year:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
–”For the Fallen,” by Laurence Binyon

By: B Irwin

B Irwin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:51:03 +0000

My dad was US Army Air Force, then Air Force after 1948. My mom was Army Signal Corps. They didn’t meet until 1947. I grew up an Air Force brat, then served active duty Air Force myself. Oddly enough, the man I’m seeing turns out to have been Air Force in his country’s services and we both have war time service in our countries’ conflicts. Makes it easy to decompress as we understand each other’s stressors.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:55:30 +0000

A beautiful remembrance. It’s humbling to think about the burdens our veterans have borne on our behalf. It reminds me of the last lines of King Lear: “The oldest hath borne most: we that are young/Shall never see so much, nor live so long.”

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:24:15 +0000

Thanks for sharing such a personal story. Remembrance Day in the UK (11th Nov) is a day to remember my Mother in Law, who died in September.

She served as a corporal in the ATS (Auxilliary Territorial Service) during World War II, being amongst the first group of women to be posted overseas at the beginning of the war.

Serving in Algiers, she ran a NAAFI canteen for the troops along with eight other women – when they arrived none of them had summer uniforms and had to have them made locally at their own expense!

The canteen followed British & Allied forces through North Africa then into Italy, where Mother in Law came under fire and was bombed on more than one occasion. I remember her telling me about the American GIs she met in Italy – she had fond memories of them.

It was also in Italy she met her future husband, an engineer who, it turned out, had lived a couple of streets away from her back home – they’d actually played together as children!

She ended up in Austria by the end of the war, but wasn’t posted home till six months after the Armistice, at which point she had a good telling off from her mother, who had wondered why Mother in Law’s husband had come home before her; she’d had to stay on to keep the canteen running for the troops involved in the aftermath of the war.

Mother in Law was a wonderful woman, though she remained uncomfortable around loud noises as a result of her experiences – she had an abiding loathing of fireworks.

Today I remember and pay tribute to her and all the allied troops who fought, both those who paid the ultimate price and those who came home.