Memorial Day

It is the Memorial Day holiday here in the US today. It was originally called "Decoration Day", when citizens visited the graves of fallen American Civil War veterans and placed flowers on them. It was officially proclaimed in 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery. These days, it is the Monday holiday that marks the unofficial start of the summer season. And it has been remarkably summerlike here in New England too!

I have some connections with the armed forces, although my own personal brush with them remains the year I spent in Air Force ROTC (Reserver Officer Training Corps) while going to RPI. It's a great deal - full tuition, room and books, plus a small monthly stipend. I only had to dress up once a week, and go to a short class, where they mostly showed "wowie" films, like airplanes taking off straight up and the like. I did also get a memorable trip to Cape Canaveral in Florida in December, which made it all worthwhile.

But ROTC was just one of the many things I couldn't hack in college and I dropped out my sophomore year. I wonder whatever happened to my uniform? My Mom probably has it carefully folded away, as my Dad cries over the lost opportunity:-)

Speaking of my Dad, he is a veteran of the Air Force. As a smart fatherless kid, his prospects after graduating high school in Hartford were slim, I imagine. He even had a close friend die of a heroin overdose - that's the kind of crowd he hung out with. And talk about a small world - the girlfriend I had after I dropped out of college, her father graduated from Hartford High the very same year as my dad! They didn't know each other though.

So he went into the Air Force and picked up a trade which would support us until he retired - air traffic controller. It was a good career, although it meant moving quite a bit growing up, even after he got out of the Air Force. And while he worked at Kennedy Airport in New York City, it made for a great place to go to work with him. I'd get my own radar screen up in the tower, and watch the airplanes with binoculars. Great fun for a ten year old!

Luckily, he was between wars - too late for the Korean War and too early for the Vietnam War. I had several cousins who also used the armed forces as an escape from the doldrums. One is still in the Navy, a lifer currently serving down in New Orleans. I think he is an airplane technician, actually.

I do have a nephew who currently in the Army. He is a member of a Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which meant he was on the front lines of the urban warfare in Iraq. I was worried for him every day. And he is due to go back in July, and I will worry for him again, while fighting in the useless and unnecessary "war" over there. I don't know how we're ever going to extricate ourselves from that morass. It was a lie and a mistake from the beginning and it is only going to get worse.

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