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Ea. Washington | Talk about a question on my mind. Am invited to a Veteran Day breakfast in the morning and wonder if I should attend or not. I too spent 9 years in the Navy Reserve, CB 13-6. Always felt because I never spent any long time on active duty I wasn't probably a true veteran. Went from seaman apprentice to EO first class and ready to go for Chief. As I was working in construction at the time I spent a lot of time being an instructor for equipment operators etc and also learned a lot from the Navy. Girl friend blew me off and I decided to go active. That all went well until the Navy decided to reduce my rank to Seaman and I would loose the rating I had earned. This was from the end of Korea and the start of Vietnam.. Always felt I never got to do what I started out to do but spent a lot of time doing it.
Had a cousin that stayed home during WW2 on an ag deferment and really worked his butt off not only on his farm but helped everybody in the neighborhood. Was the only able bodied young man around. Help was impossible to find and food was very important to the troops. Some of his classmates and people in the community looked down on him for this. He came down with MS and spent 40 years as pretty helpless cripple. Had some veterans say to me, "serves him right for not serving." This always bothered me as I thought he worked just as hard as they did to accomplish the goal.
Guess after reading this I will go quietly to the breakfast, listen to the speeches and be a little prouder of the time I did spend. Thanks. | |
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Am I a Veteran??
