Happy Veteran’s Day

[chris]

And thank you for your service. 🇺🇸

[clarencebunsen]

Thinking about some of the Veterans in my life today.

The first is my friend Fred. We spent many hours together: playing hoops in the driveway, reading comic books in his room, several of us playing an endless game of Risk. One day in 1968 he became a war hero and a name for The Wall. I touch his name each time I visit the Viet Nam Memorial. There are other names there but his gets touched.

My uncle George. A gentle man who taught me how to read a pond for holes which held fish and how to use a blowtorch rather than a scraper to remove old paint from a window frame. It was from his obituary that I learned that he had earned 2 Silver Stars in North Africa. I still wonder if his skill with with a blowtorch was earned by spraying jellied gasoline on Romel's tanks.

My Grandfather. Volunteered for WWI. Served in the Army. Became a Civil Engineer and built roads and bridges in Minnesota. Volunteered immediately after D-Day. The Navy didn't send him to training. They immediately made him a warrant officer and sent him to England. Built airfields for the RAF and the USAF (just like building short roads). Built floating concrete structures which could be floated across the English Channel to serve as unloading docks at D-Day. Transferred to the Pacific theater. Built airfields on Pacific Islands (just like short roads). Built an underwater concrete structure in the Philippine Islands so McArthur could wade ashore in knee deep waters. Returned to Minnesota after V-J Day to build roads and bridges.

My father and my Uncle Bill, both went into the Navy as soon as they graduated from high school. Both went to school after the war using the GI Bill.

I was lucky. I went into the Army after graduating with a degree in Physics and the Army decided that person with my knowledge and skills could best serve as an MP. Of the roughly 100 guys in my class in MP school, 85 went to Nam. Fifteen of us went to Germany and I was stationed on the border between East and West Germany. Because of an "incident" in Berlin shortly before I arrived, those at the border checkpoint were not allowed to have bullets in our weapons. I think the Russians were not allowed to have bullets which seemed unfair.

To my brother-in-law Tom who volunteered for the Marines immediately after graduating from high school. His time of service extended from Nam to Afghanistan. He is still serving as a Marine recruiter.

[clarencebunsen]

I neglected to mention my brother-in-law Dick and my friend Clipper. Both volunteered for the Navy after high school and served off the coast of Viet Nam.

[clarencebunsen]

This was posted on FB with a photo of my Dad and Grandpa in their Navy uniforms. I had always thought that that picture had been taken after the war because they served in different areas.

"Remember loose lips sink ships. So the family had little warning they were both going to be home. Dad mentioned in a letter that he was going to pet the dog. Then while in NYC after getting off the Queen Elizabeth. Grandpa send a telegram saying see you in two days. Aunt Carrol and Aunt Fran intercepted the telegram man coming to the house so Grandma would not see him. They were sure something bad had happened to one of them or Uncle Bill. The telegraph man told them that if any such telegram like that came in, he took them to the Minister. Dad had completed advanced training at Great Lakes and Texas A&M and was on 30 days leave before deployment to the Pacific. If you notice he has Electrician rating on his arm. It was Op-Sec at that time that Ra-DAR techs did not wear their rating because Ra-DAR was secret technology and of the possibility of capture. Grandpa was on thirty days leave, in preparation of D-Day he had completed the Phoenix breakwater project and was headed to the Pacific to build runways for the island hopping to come."

[Atticus Pizzaballa]

During that time I was in religious life as a Franciscan. During formation years 1966 to 1969 we were not allowed to watch TV or listen to radio or read a newspaper. I lost all that history of the Vietnam War. But we prayed consistently for all those serving in the Vietnam .

What I laugh about is that I arrived at the Monastery in Sept. 1966 and in October of 1966 I received my draft notification in the mail I was classified as a D meaning divinity school and my draft lottery was 32.

[Clipper]

Nov 11, 2023 16:22:47 GMT -5 Atticus Pizzaballa said:

During that time I was in religious life as a Franciscan. During formation years 1966 to 1969 we were not allowed to watch TV or listen to radio or read a newspaper. I lost all that history of the Vietnam War. But we prayed consistently for all those serving in the Vietnam .

What I laugh about is that I arrived at the Monastery in Sept. 1966 and in October of 1966 I received my draft notification in the mail I was classified as a D meaning divinity school and my draft lottery was 32.

During the Vietnam war many contributed to the war effort in jobs here in the US, and in my opinion there were those in the religious life and lay people who were "prayer warriors who prayed for the end of the war and the safety of our military members. I guess I have mentioned how much I believe in the power of prayer on here before, but over the years I have had experiences that cemented that belief over the last 50 or so years. You played your part believe me.