Highlighting Memories this Memorial Day
My Grandpa died in March of this year. He was in the Navy as a late teen, having lied about his age to get in early. He was stationed in the Pacific War and the Korean War, he was your James Dean/Jack Palace type of soldier that would rather go AWOL for a party weekend, start a fight instead of get promoted, or guard the nurses cabins on hot nights. He had tattoos of women’s names, most notably “Gert” (who is not my grandmother, mind you), which I never saw until he was in the hospital in February, when he made jokes about how skinny his legs were (“who the [censored]’s legs are those?”). It’s memorial day, and I can’t stop thinking about him.
I have a few beloved friends who were in the Marines and the Army, and I am always fascinated by their stories – of fear, triumph, hard work, friendships, camaraderie, pranks, death, tradition, heroes, and politics.
Today on Reddit I was pleased to come across this AMA from an amazing granddaughter (NOT me, btw), helping to share the life of her grandfather (AMA stands for ‘Ask Me Anything’):
In honor of memorial day, I am an 88 year old WW2 aerial photographer/vet (self.IAmA)
by ilovemypapa
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Good read.. My grandfather was in the navy during the Korean war. I remember when I was younger, I used to get to see him marching in local parades with some other veterans where they wore these red bucket shaped hats. Good times. It was about 5 years ago that he died, in either June or July I believe. The last thing I remember of him was when he took me to a restaurant for my birthday in October of 2007 when he came to visit from out of state.
I had to laugh because he was hitting on the cute waitresses and flirting, something I never witnessed him do before. When he dropped me off at home, its like he knew and expected it to be the last time he would see me. He laughed and jokingly said, “I’ll see you next year if I’m still alive.” And that was it.
This is such a beautiful post. Very moving.