Never Forget

Never Forget My Daddy.

Celebrating Veteran’s Day this week, I remember my Daddy who served on a ship in the Philippines during World War II. Mom and Dad were married and had a baby, my sister Linda, when he was called to serve. Our family lived in Porterville, a small central California town, where he returned after the war, and I was born nine years after my sister. Dad became very involved in Veterans affairs. He joined the Veterans’ of Foreign Wars, and Mom joined the VFW Auxiliary. I even became a member of the VFW Junior Auxiliary and am a life member of the VFW Auxiliary in my parents honor.

When I was a teenager, a veteran and his family showed up at our front door wanting to see my father. They had fallen on hard times and had nothing to eat. My parents were at a VFW meeting out of town, so I invited the family in, made them a meal, gave them a bag of groceries from our pantry, and asked them to return to see Dad the next day. My dad was so upset with me when I told him what I had done inviting strangers into the house when he wasn’t home, but he softened when I told him that I just did what I know he would have done.

Dad ultimately became the Department Commander of the VFW for the state of California, the highest state office. In that role he was active nationally even testifying before a Senate sub-committee in Washington DC during the Cold War. Traveling with him at times I had experiences I’ll never forget, including shaking hands with Vice President Nixon, hearing John F. Kennedy speak and getting to touch him afterward, and having dinner with Governor Pat Brown of California. I also met some Hollywood stars along the way.

In Porterville, the biggest holiday of the year is Veteran’s Day. Mom was always the secretary for the parade and the whole family worked on it all year. This year they are celebrating their 100^thannual parade. The festivities started with a big prayer meeting honoring all Veterans on Sunday evening at the start of Veteran’s Day week. My dad was the speaker at that event in 1989, and the next day he died of a heart attack. Being the most famous Veteran in town, the rest of the week was a community celebration of my father including a special car driven in the parade with no passenger and a funeral wreath in his honor. His funeral was the biggest I’ve ever seen.

Being a Veteran in that small town still is a big deal, and the Veterans are honored. Porterville has the largest loss of life per capita for the Vietnam War, so we all knew the pride and honor of knowing those serving our country, and the loss and grief of our friends and family members. Seeing a homeless Veteran breaks my heart. We can do better. When given the opportunity, I hope we all, including our government, will do what we can to take care of our Veterans in honor for their service, and in honor of all of us still grieving the loss of so many.

Never Forget.