Memorial Day 2009

I can't help but not think of a frightful day in the 1970s, a day I don't even remember, when my dad and his Huey crew over Nam somewhere (I suppose) was flying low over the jungle.  Years later I saw a report on this in the shed out back of our house in Montgomery.  They flew over some big black thing on the ground and immediately began a hard bank.  As they turned, the report said, both gunners, who were basically hanging out the doors, were instantly cut in half by gunfire.  One shot went up between my father's legs and then through the top of the chopper.  And down they went.  Dad's report said he meticulously destroyed the US radios on the chopper.  As the story went, they helped get others to safety and another chopper came along and helped airlift them out to safety.

Dad got a medal for that day at McConnell AFB in Wichita, KA months later.  I didn't know what it was for.  But I can vaguely remember the ceremony.  After all, I was in the first grade and that was a long time ago.

I did not learn of that day until years later, as we were traveling from Northern Michigan at K.I. Sawyer AFB to Castle AFB in Atwater, CA.  Grandma and Grandpa Claxton were driving me and one of my brothers, (For some reason I think we'd stopped at a nursery on Route 51 in Hobart, IN) and grandma said something to the effect of, "Don't you remember when your dad got shot down and he quite writing your mom every day for two weeks?"  I didn't, and well, that let the proverbial cat out.

It probably wasn't something I needed to worry about while I was in kindergarten.  And it apparently still isn't because the details of that day seem to be lost in the tides of the past.  Dad has never talked about it, even with prodding.  Mom, nope. 

And so on this Memorial Day, my heart goes out to those kids from Nam, those kids from the Gulf Wars, and all the other wars of US history whose fathers were like the gunners of my dad's Huey mission that day.  I've been blessed by the fact that my dad made it through that day.   As I could not imagine what my life would have turned out like had he not.  We were in the Hobart/Gary IN area at the time.  I would say without hesitation we wouldn't have moved on from there, save mom getting remarried. 

Thank you to all the Vets out there for the sacrifices you're making for our country.  Thank you for sacrificing the time away from your wives and kids, as well as the protecting of our beliefs.  And to those who we have lost in the call of duty, we thank you for paying the ultimate price.