Opaque Lucidity

For The Veteran

Veteran's Day is almost over. Although I technically am a veteran, this day always makes me think of those who actually served in combat or overseas. I was in Naval Nuclear Power School during the first Gulf War; I watched it on CNN like most of the rest of you. The Navy was, to me, training, training, training, followed by boredom and invitations to get into trouble. Don't get me wrong: I would do it again in a heartbeat because it helped shape the person I am today. It also allowed me to meet my best friend, without whom my life would be completely different (and not in a good way, I suspect).

Today, I thought about how my mother remembers the Second World War. She was born in 1936, so she was very young when her father went away to the Navy. The extended family spent every Sunday at her grandmother's house, situated on the Indiana bank of the Ohio River. Directly upstream was the Jeffersonville Boat Works, today known as Jeffboat. The yard built LSTs during the war, hulking vessels designed to be driven up on enemy beaches and disgorge tanks and other heavy machinery. The LSTs sailed by my great-grandmother's house, becoming the only contact with the military my mother experienced during the war. Interestingly, my dad's father, who was too old for the war, helped build those LSTs.

One thing mom has mentioned time and time again is that all the men of her father's generation were gone. ALL of them. Sure, there were guys who had seven kids or didn't qualify physically for the military, but every one of mom's uncles served. When I was younger and heard that fact, it just made sense: the war was big, people got drafted or volunteered and we won the war. Ta-da.

Not this war. This time, only a tiny percentage of the US population is in the military. Most of you reading this do not have regular contact with anyone in the military. When the story of this war is told, witnesses to combat will be few and far between. In one way, this is good. In another, it is tragic because most of us have not been asked to sacrifice anything. We don't buy war bonds or grow victory gardens or patch old tires or save up so we can buy enough meat for Sunday dinner. I believe we are missing something, an exercise that would give us a sense of community and nationhood.

Thanks to those who have served and are now serving. The world is better because of your service.