My War Hero September 9, 2009

So today was just the best.  Grandpa was here for his honor flight.  There was quite a group from Missouri, I guess Bob Dole was out there right before we arrived welcoming the groups.  He didn’t know I was going to be there, so I surprised him pretty well I think.  I walked up to him taking his picture, and when he realized it was me his surprised face was a tongue sticking out at me!  I love him, he’s so great.  He reminds me so much of my dad (even though I suppose technically it is the other way around), that same quiet sense of humor.

Walking around the WWII memorial was AMAZING!!!  All of the veterans getting to see the monument that was erected in their honor, it was a once in a lifetime experience for me.  People walking by would stop and talk to them and thank them for what they did for our country.  And you know what my grandpa said in response to them?  Thank you for the appreciation.  That is all these men and women want, is to be appreciated for the sacrifices they made for our freedom, not to get fanfare or fancy monuments.  Just for acknowledgment of what they did.

I found out some cool things today.  My grandpa doesn’t really like to talk about his time in the Air Force.  All I really knew was that he flew planes (with pin-up girls on the side!) in the Pacific theater.  Today I found out that he was in Okinawa the day the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  That made my stomach flip-flop.  I believe he saw survivors of that atrocity while he was there, and now I understand why maybe he doesn’t want to talk about it.  He was also scheduled for a mission that same day, but it was canceled at the last minute.  How fortunate we are that he made it home alive!

I heard stories of planes going down, men with shrapnel in their legs still to this day from that war.  One gentleman was in a wheelchair because of his plane crash.  There were a few amputees whose limbs still reside on foreign soil.  Grandpa’s buddy for the day was stationed in Europe.  He said all he could think about when he remembered the war was the concentration camps.  He was one of the men that liberated Dachau.  He remembers the giant furnace where they were still burning bodies when they got there.  How could you ever forget something like that?

That leads me to my next thought that has been gnawing at my brain all day.  These soldiers not only sacrificed their time, their safety, their jobs and family-life, but they sacrificed a life free from the nightmares of atrocities that still haunt them today.  To see them talking about some of the things they saw, even so long ago, you could tell it was seared into their minds so that when they closed their eyes it was as if it had happened yesterday.  That is another thing that I am thankful to those who serve their country; those kinds of images and situations are nothing more than imagination to me, a history lesson to be learned, a horrible thing that man-kind can never let happen again.  To these people it was a daily way of existence, and now it is a memory that I am sure many of them wish they could forget.

Well, I think that is all I have to say right now.  I wanted to get some thoughts down while everything was fresh in my mind.  I am so happy that I had this opportunity, but not half as happy as I am that grandpa had this opportunity.

Grandpa’s Honor Flight September 4, 2009

Most of you probably don’t know, but my grandfather qualified for a Missouri Honor Flight.  It is a program that takes veterans from MO to DC to see the war memorials.  I believe WWII vets get first pick, but I am not sure.  Anyhoo, his trip out is next Wednesday, the 9th of September.  I have taken the day off and am going to go with him to visit all of the memorials, and I am so excited I can hardly stand it!  He has never been out here before, so it should be pretty exciting for him.

The group that is coordinating this asked for friends and family to send letters to their veteran because they will have a mail call on the flight out here to DC, and I just wanted to share it.  I wrote it at work which was probably the only thing that kept me from crying.  I am in awe of people who choose to serve in the military, and even though I may not agree with what our government is doing in certain situations, I would never in a million years be so shallow and ignorant to take that out on the soldiers themselves.  They didn’t make the decision on what the US military would do, it was the politicians that we voted into office that did.  Enough of that soap-box, here is the letter that I sent my grandpa.

Dear Grandpa,

I am so excited to see you in a few short hours.  It is going to be such an honor for me to be able to be with you when you see the memorials in DC for the first time.  Don’t worry, I will have the camera battery charged and ready to go!

As excited as I am, I can only imagine what is going through your head as you travel almost a thousand miles to see the tributes to you and your fellow veterans.  It is so amazing to me the commitment and sacrifice of young men going half-way around the globe to defend my freedom before my parents were even born.  Your bravery is truly an inspiration for me to be my best and work my hardest to make you proud Grandpa.  I want you to know how much I appreciate what you did for this country, and I want to live my life to the fullest to honor the opportunities that you helped secure for all of us.

Working here in the DC area I know that I have never understood what you did for us as well as I do now.  Visiting the memorials is so moving, but they are still just stone.  It is living in an environment where I meet people of all nationalities that have come here to experience what most Americans take for granted now that really drives home how lucky we are to live in the US, and even luckier to have men and women who are willing to sacrifice everything to protect that way of life.  I don’t think I will ever know what it is like to be on the front line, or for my life to be in danger every moment of every day and I want to say thank you Grandpa for giving me that gift.  Thank you for defending my freedom, thank you for protecting a place where I will never be persecuted for my beliefs or held down just because I was born a woman.  I am so proud to have you as my grandfather and I want you to know that I love you with all of my heart.

Thank you and love always,

Tara

Just wanted to share because that is how I really feel, and it is important to get my opinion out there so I can’t be accused of never saying anything.