Veteran's Day and a Salute to So Many Who Have Given So Much

Dad - 1944

It's Veteran's Day and even though my Dad is no longer physically here to read this, it's a very special day in this family.

Like so many of our parents from the "greatest generation", Dad never talked much about the war. In fact, I got most of my best stories when I took him on HonorFlight last year to Washington. There, in the comfort of hanging out with his peers, the stories just started to flow.

Dad was in the Army Air Corps and after discovering a perforated eardrum was grounded and spent most of his time in the radio tower. I remember somebody asking him if he ever got to meet General MacArthur. "No, but I brought his plane in a few times."

Dad couldn't have been more proud to have served. As we went through old pictures we took with us on HonorFlight, while time may have stolen memories of more recent years, he knew the names of everybody in each photograph, even the cities they were from. He also wrote the names on the back of the photographs. 

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Charles Berret from Philly with Dad

As always, Dad had a few classic stories to bring some laughs into one of the most difficult times in his life.

He was based in the Asia/Pacific and one day they were looking for musicians to volunteer. Dad played the trumpet and could only think about a little light duty. He immediately signed up anticipating being part of the Army Air Corps band. Well he did get to be with the band...they needed volunteers to move a hundred pianos for a USO tour coming to the base. He moved pianos for the next two days! Other stories were much more traumatic, but that was one of Dad's favorites.

So, to my Dad, our son Brian who currently serves and brother-in-law Randy and so many of you who served or have sons and daughters serving now, thank you for giving so much to our country.

​Honor Flight has a slogan that I love... ​

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“We can’t all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they walk by.”
Will Rogers