The older I get, the more I realize how very much we owe our country's veterans. Wow, what a sacrifice they have made. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all who have served our country!
In my family, my own father served in the Korean Conflict - was it ever called a war? Dad's parents sent him away to Kemper Military School in Boonville (sp?) when he was in high school with the thought that it would make a man of him. Several Atlantic boys went there, along with others I've heard of - including George Lindsay of Goober/Mayberry TV show fame.
I'm sure at the time they sent him there my grandparents weren't thinking it would lead to Dad being shipped off to Korea. Dad attended Kemper for his last couple years of high school and for junior college. Then he headed to the University of Iowa. (I know - I come from 2 generations of them...)
Mom and Dad were married at the beginning of their senior year of college (1950) and Susi was born that next September - 1951. Lore has it that when they graduated from the University of Iowa (Mom was 2nd in her class - a Phi Beta Kappa) the person checking out the graduation robes said, "how nice, twins graduating!" They didn't look that much alike, and she was just starting to show.
Dad was in ROTC at college, so when the Korean Conflict started it was evident he was going to go there. Susi was born in Atlantic - my hometown. Then I think my parents moved to Fort Benning, Georgia (I think - this is all from memory) for basic training. Dad was doing all he could to avoid getting shipped out - he wanted to stay with his little fam. But eventually away he went, and Mom went to visit her sis Dorothy in California.
Mom saved Dad's airmail letters from Korea. And when dad passed away in very late 2006 - that next spring my sisters and I got the awful chore of going through my parents' life possessions as we prepared their condo for sale. I found all those letters and the official letters on Dad's behalf trying to muster him out of the service for a variety of reasons. He ended up being some sort of supply officer (2nd Lt.) at a base there. I have a menu he put together for Thanksgiving. And thank goodness he came back safe and sound!
I didn't end up reading his letters to my mother. They were too intimate - love letters. Not for my eyes. I recycled them after keeping them here at my house for several months. Some things daughters just don't need to know about their parents! Even though my father didn't participate in active combat, his service was a hardship on him and his family. I can't imagine my son being overseas today. Bless those troops and families!
In my family, my own father served in the Korean Conflict - was it ever called a war? Dad's parents sent him away to Kemper Military School in Boonville (sp?) when he was in high school with the thought that it would make a man of him. Several Atlantic boys went there, along with others I've heard of - including George Lindsay of Goober/Mayberry TV show fame.
I'm sure at the time they sent him there my grandparents weren't thinking it would lead to Dad being shipped off to Korea. Dad attended Kemper for his last couple years of high school and for junior college. Then he headed to the University of Iowa. (I know - I come from 2 generations of them...)
Mom and Dad were married at the beginning of their senior year of college (1950) and Susi was born that next September - 1951. Lore has it that when they graduated from the University of Iowa (Mom was 2nd in her class - a Phi Beta Kappa) the person checking out the graduation robes said, "how nice, twins graduating!" They didn't look that much alike, and she was just starting to show.
Dad was in ROTC at college, so when the Korean Conflict started it was evident he was going to go there. Susi was born in Atlantic - my hometown. Then I think my parents moved to Fort Benning, Georgia (I think - this is all from memory) for basic training. Dad was doing all he could to avoid getting shipped out - he wanted to stay with his little fam. But eventually away he went, and Mom went to visit her sis Dorothy in California.
Mom saved Dad's airmail letters from Korea. And when dad passed away in very late 2006 - that next spring my sisters and I got the awful chore of going through my parents' life possessions as we prepared their condo for sale. I found all those letters and the official letters on Dad's behalf trying to muster him out of the service for a variety of reasons. He ended up being some sort of supply officer (2nd Lt.) at a base there. I have a menu he put together for Thanksgiving. And thank goodness he came back safe and sound!
I didn't end up reading his letters to my mother. They were too intimate - love letters. Not for my eyes. I recycled them after keeping them here at my house for several months. Some things daughters just don't need to know about their parents! Even though my father didn't participate in active combat, his service was a hardship on him and his family. I can't imagine my son being overseas today. Bless those troops and families!
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