One of my readers found this page on the blog website. There is a photograph of my first wife’s tombstone, our daughter’s, and my name just requiring the date of death. I answered her questions by email. She noticed that this year I will turn 80. She also said that I must be a “warrior.” Here are the answers to those two questions and a bit more taken from my email to her.
I am not sure that the term “warrior” fits me. At that time in our country’s history, we had a draft, and every young man had to serve in one of the Armed Forces. I could’ve waited until I completed college and then done my necessary service. Still, I thought the delay between finishing college and actually pursuing a career wouldn’t be reasonable. I decided to volunteer to get my required duty done. The fact that my service has left me with medical problems doesn’t make me a “warrior.” I did serve in Vietnam early in that war, 1964 – 65. My medical issues have come about because I fell off a pile of logs during physical training on an obstacle course. That accident damaged my back in a way that didn’t show up until 40 years later. I have said before in the blog, “I grew up knowing there would be a war for me to fight. My grandfather’s had served in World War I and my father in World War II.” I thought going to war was as much part of life as growing up in getting married and having children. I never questioned either.
Her other question was, “Do you have any ideas to pass along to younger people?” The first thing that came to my mind was her comment about being a “Warrior.” – Don’t assume there’ll be a war for you to fight! It wasn’t until many years later I realized how much time and effort into my planning for that war. I remember taking a world history course in high school. It started with the founding of the first civilizations in the Middle East area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. That area is often referred to as the Fertile Crescent. I remember studying for a test, and I was using a list of the civilizations, city-states, their time, and the war that was their downfall. And so it went beyond that test. History was nothing more than a series of conflicts with empires rising and falling. With the little people of a country always paying the price for the wars with their blood, don’t let it happen.
I like to keep these blog posts from getting too long, so I’ll consider answering more of her questions in another blog.
