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Mom and dad about to head to inaugural ball, 1961

During WWII my dad served in the Army Air Corps and my mom as an Army Nurse.
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My two favorite veterans:


My dad, enlisted on his 17th birthday, left Texas for Great Lakes, then a train to San Franciso. Sailed out the Golden Gate and didn't return until the war was over. He saw a lot of combat in the Pacific as an Electrician's Mate on a Tin Can, then college on the GI Bill and a long, satisfying career as an electrical engineer.

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As a child I remember asking him if he was ever afraid. He said not so much, except at the end - the Kamikaze's really spooked him.


My daughter informed us when she was only 16 (at a rather formal dinner with her high school principal - a nun mind you) that she was going to the Naval Academy. My wife actually kicked her under the table as she thought she being a wisea$$. But she set her mind to it, the Navy really wanted her, a Letter of Assurance came in the mail and away she went.


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She excelled at the Academy, service selected Surface Warfare, and graduated with a BS in Chinese Language & Culture. She earned her OOD and then her SWO pin on her first deployment to the South China Sea and the Arabian Gulf, loved standing watch driving the ship, and her collateral responsibility were the ship's several turbine engines (Nickname Turbo - for a variety of reasons). Along with those very demanding responsibilities she also buddied up with the ship's Navigator, then taught herself celestial navigation. She did very well, so they pretty much gave her the whatever she wanted for her second tour.

Second tour was affectionately called a NATO "Booze Cruise" to Europe. She became a Lieutenant and the new ship's NAV, sailed out of Everett down through the Panama Canal and across to the Azores, then many ports in Europe, then back to NYC for Fleet Week, back across the Atlantic to Scotland, Norway, sailed under the Northern Lights, etc etc, back through the Big Ditch and home to Puget Sound. And after 4 years on the Yard and 5 1/2 years active, she decided to call it quits, becoming a civilian in August of this year. Plans to start a family now... : )

Anyways, I guess I'm rather proud of both!

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I'll stop now...

Just wonderful photos and stories. Thank you to all that serve and have served.

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Thank you for your service. :)

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My son meeting Uncle Michael. KIA Quang Nam Province June 18, 1966.
Rest In Peace H3N Michael Najarian USN

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That is another one of my memorable Veterans Day images. Thank you.

My Father could not go to the Wall. He had no issues with the Korean War Memorial, but the Wall crushed him emotionally.

My absolute best to H3N Najarian. I salute you, young man.

My father and his twin brother both served in the Army during WWII. They grew up as kids on a farm in Va when the Great Depression turned a decades old cattle and farm Empire into nothing. What once was over 1000 acres multi-generational very profitable enterprise had been foreclosed on with nothing more than a section of @20 acres rocky pasture so worthless the bank wouldn't take it at the time.

But even that piece of property was lost a few years later. My father and his brother Jack decided there had to be something better. They both enrolled the ROTC program in middle / high school so to then have a chance at a college education. VPI specifically.

In their senior year, dad's brother failed accounting (whole story unto itself ), but dad graduated. Back then there was no 'Summer School' so Jack had to repeat the entire year. Dad elected to wait it out, wait for Jack to repeat and finish 12th grade so they could attend VPI together. So he decided to work an additional year on the farm.

They both attended VPI under the ROTC program with a little money (what was left) from my grandfather. They both graduated with honors right in the middle of the war. They both received their 'letters' of where they would be serving.

Somewhere in the brief interim, Jack had established some importance and influence on the west coast and prior to going overseas, and also a promotion. Dad was to be stationed in France in the thick of the battle.

When Dad told Jack where he was going; Jack told him that he had enough influence already and could pull some strings so dad would not be in that area, in the middle on danger. Dad replied that was his orders, that's where our Country needed him, he was going, thanks, but no thanks.

And go he did. Both men made a great contribution and returned home to virtually...…………..nothing legacy-wise from their parents or the farm. It was all gone by then and for a time dad's parents lived with him.

Both my father and Jack ended up successful men, self-made men. Neither man ever worked for or answered to, anyone else in their professional career. Jack was into real estate, insurance and real estate appraisals. Dad started his own cattle brokerage, and was instrumental in exporting dairy and feeder cattle to Europe in the mid 60's. Standing on some of the very same ground that he helped defend for our allies 20+ years earlier.

They were absolutely the picture of The Greatest Generation

My Mother served with Joseph Stillwell in the China, Burma & India theater .
She was awarded a Bronze Star for being in a field hospital behind enemy lines.
When the war was winding down, she was staged on Iwo Jima for the eventual invasion of japan. They all thought they were never coming back.
Every August 6th my Mom would bake a cake with a mushroom cloud to honor Truman who saved their lives.

Incredible. What history. She sounds like an amazing woman.

I would like to echo that...and buttress an amazing woman's story with one I have written here before.

When I was at the Sikorsky Factory, I lived with one of the Sikorsky Test Pilots during the week. I drove home to Maryland on the weekends.

He was from Korea. His father was a slave to the Japanese in WWII. He was a slave in a mine outside either Nagasaki or Hiroshima, I do not remember. Both cities are surrounded by hills. Mr. Lee was a slave in the hills near them.

Mr. Lee and I got along. He came to Bridgeport from his home in Staten Island on a Tuesday and Mr. Lee, his son and I may have had a few cocktails while we grilled. Mrs. Lee was not there.

He told me there were rumors and talk of Japan being invaded. Everyone knew.

He then told me he heard the bomb and knew he was going to survive. Imagine.

Great family. Why we fight.

Meanwhile in Canada...😡

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My parents story. They were dating when war broke out. Mom was a registered nurse so when dad enlisted, she decided to do the same. She outranked him most of the war. After basic training she went in as a Second Lieutenant, he as a private. He finally got into Officer Training School but by the time he got his bars, she made First Lieutenant. She ended up in Australia and New Guinea while he never shipped out to an over seas assignment. He spent most of the war as an instructor teaching radio and then radar to air crews.

I can't imagine. This part of history is fascinating to me. Thanks for the memory.

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Mom and pops Flatbutt. This was taken when Dad got home from the Pacific. Mom said he weighed about 110 lbs at the time. That's three on top and two under on his sleeve.

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Fantastic stories, guys. Thanks to all that served and currently do so.

I had an electrical engineering professor, Dr. Park, who was a radio man on a tin can in the Pacific who had the same sentiment. He was glad to get out of the war with his own skin.

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This weekend I attended Porsche Palooza, in Eureka Springs, AR. At the banquet dinner on the 11th I happened to be seated next to the father in this video, and his wife was next to him. They are both 25+ year veterans of the Air Force. The video is about their son.

He is a Combat Controller. He said a combat controller is a guy that goes with the Seals on their missions, or the Rangers, or Delta Force. He has gone through Seal Training, and Ranger training. He is also a Air Traffic Controller and the Air Force PJ with medic training.

It was an honor for me to have met him and shared a meal together.

Couldn't find the old man's photos. A couple of mine.

Basic training 1987

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Mogadishu 1993/4

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The National Training Center Fort Irwin CA 1995


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I still have one of those old ID cards, under expiration date it says INDEFINITE.