Veterans in every family...

Veteran's Day always makes me stop and spend some time thinking about those members of my family who have served our nation.  I'm sure many of you have members, past and present, that have given of themselves to keep us safe.  Here in is my family's roll-call:

The Major

John Rush Herndon II served in WWII.  Won Bronze Star for meritorious action against a dedicated enemy during German breakout at 'The Battle of The Bulge."

Some of you read my blog "The Very Best of Us" that depicts my nephew Billy Montieth in the picture below.   He just re-enlisted for another five years.

This is my eldest son Anthony.  He won his naval 'AIM' medal for actions that saved his sub not long after 911 broke out.  He now works full time for Blue Bell Ice Cream while taking a full course load at U of H, where he is studying Theoretical Physics.

My father, John Rush Herndon III, MD.  He was a cadet at VPI (now known as Virginia Tech) where he played football and studied pre-Med.  He went on for his doctorate at UGa and spent two years as a Flight Surgeon with the US Air Force, during the build up in Vietnam.

My step brother Alan Ellinger.  One old salty dude.  Played tight end for the Greenwave and wrestled at a state level.  The Army wanted him to grapple on their wrestling team, so Alan joined, then ended up in a shooting match down in Panama, the Gulf and so on.  An asst. Principle here in the Houston area now, he serves in the guard and just came back from another tour of duty.  His father was a thirty year Airborne Ranger that was involved in training the first Green Berets when they emerged.  Also, not pictured, our other brother Howard Jr. (Bubba) served two years as well in the eighties stationed in Germany.

                

My double-second cousin Bobby Kelly.  One of the Fla. cousins proudly served in Iraq

Pfc. Petak, my step son Jonathan.  He almost made it through bootcamp, but destroyed his knee during training.  He's out now and about to attend college in Pittsburg Pa.

  

Also not pictured here above: My uncle Charles Jarrard who flew a glider into Normady with the 101st Airborne on D-Day.  He was wounded in action while trying to make a supply run into Baston.  

I'm pretty sure most families out there have many members who have given their time, and even their lives in service to all of us.  We can remember them always, but we can never thank them enough.

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The Very Best of US

This morning I had the privilege of talking to my nephew (fourth from the right) by instant messenger. I was in my office while he was sitting in a computer tent/shed-whatever someplace over in Afghanistan.

A scout with (last I asked him) the Seventh Infantry, Billy has been through the thick and thin of our most recent, two-headed war on terror. Shot a few times, and blown up a couple more, he will tell you that body armor works, and that war sucks, generally speaking.

If most U.S. Soldiers are anything like my nephew, then I feel pretty good about us. Billy is a fine young man who has taken his training seriously, and been over for more tours of duty than any of us would dream of taking.

With four months left on this tour, he paces a small encampment daily, fighting the reality between extreme boredom, or the pure, undiluted excitement of being under attack by a dedicated guerrilla force that the CIA trained nearly forty years ago when they wanted to run the Russians out of their country.

In the pictures we see of Billy lately, he has matured into a real, steely-eyed fighting man; a leader of others like himself; someone dedicated to getting your son or daughter back home to you in one piece, should training and good luck hold out.

The idea that I could sit here and have an online chat with a front line soldier is a sign of the times we live in. Seventy years ago, my uncles and grandfathers were in a war that left loved ones back home to wonder about the fate of their sons, especially in the face of headlines that spoke of places like Normandy, or Iwo Jima; headlines that left the reader waiting for the casualty list to follow.

These boys have done so much for all of us. I just hope that the rest of us can pull our shit together and get this nation rolling again when they come back home. What a tragic shame it would be to send our young off to war and not offer them a fighting chance when they return without their youth or innocence.

We talked about the future, what he plans for the next few years. His wife Amada, who also served and now takes on the roll of mother as well, is going back to school while Billy, most likely will re-enlist…again. Billy is good at what he does.

Most of us will never have to know what war is like. Kids like Billy get to take that job for us. That’s why whenever I see a kid in uniform I stop and shake their hand, or buy that soda they are holding in the check out aisle. I just want that kid, all of them really, to know that most of us are thinking about them all the time; that even though this world seems to keep on spinning along, we are remembering them as they do their jobs, jobs that most of us would not wish to fill.

So I’m hoping that when Billy gets home in four months that he can stay home, even if only to start teaching new kids how to do what he, and all those like him, have already done. It is young men like Billy that keep the fires of democracy burning for all of us.

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