My Dad the Veteran

Veterans Day is probably the day I am most filled with memories of my dad, not because I was an army brat. No, he was out of the Army by the time he married my Mom. It is because those years in the Army were a happy time for him and he told us EVERY story there was to tell a few hundred times, and I am being very conservative with those numbers. I know most are thinking, being in the army is a happy time?  I have ponder'd that thought dozens of times over my life. But lets face it, being born during the Great Depression in New York City to a deadbeat dad who dies when you are 14, then add to that a mentally unstable mother, no, it is not the recipe for a happy childhood. 
What I have come to believe is he enjoyed knowing I will always have 3 meals a day, a bed all my own to sleep on and a structured stable "family".  It actually makes me very sad considering the very happy stable childhood he provided for me and my two siblings. Then again the combination of those contrasting lives are what formed him into the man he was to become and the loving family man we all knew and loved and miss so much today.

So, Happy Veterans day to my Dad who LOVED his country and loved serving his country. Thankfully he was lucky enough to do it in one of the few times our country was at peace.
I hope that some day his grandchildren will lovingly pass on to their children Pop-Pop's stories of "The Service" and his love of country, only time will tell....