Posted by
Steve on Wednesday, November 09, 2011 8:33:45 PM
November 11 is Veteran’s Day. It is time to honor those who are serving and have served our country to keep us free. Yes, they even fought to allow those idiots in the occupy movement to do stupid things.
November 11 is a very special day to me for a number of reasons. First, it is my birthday. I take it as a badge of honor that I was born on the day that honors veterans. While I am not a veteran, I take honor in coming from a long line of men who served our country in times of war. My military service attempt was during the Vietnam War. I was in college and my draft number was 22. That meant when I graduated, I was almost 100% sure of getting drafted. I decided that I would rather enlist and choose where and how I served than have it chosen for me.
A friend of mine in a similar situation went from college in Greeley, CO to Denver to take the tests to join the military. I took the tests attempting to score high enough to be able to go to OCS and become an officer. My father had been an officer during WWII. I had no problem with the tests. I was the high score for the day and for the last month. My chance at OCS was looking very good. I then had to take the physical and there my problem started. I had played basketball the night before against a team that felt a ticky-tack foul was taking your head off. Also, after basketball games my knees sometimes hurt and they did this day. So, I reported the sore knees. The doctors examined my knees and took X-rays. Their analysis was that my knees would require surgery within 10 years and that I was unfit for military service.
I have to admit I was disappointed and happy at the same time. I really wanted to be an officer like my Dad. But, I really did not want to be shot at. The draft board reclassified me as 1-Y. This meant I could be drafted but only for office duty. The military was not drafting 1-Y’s at that time. A few years later the classification 1-Y was discontinued and all people that were 1-Y were reassigned the classification 4-F.
My family has served this country in times of war honorably since the Revolution. I have done some research on Ancestry.com and found at least 12 privates, a sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major and a General that are direct relatives that served during the Revolution. During the Civil War, I could only find two privates for the Union and one private for the Confederates. During WWI, my grandfathers served in the same unit. They became friends and moved back door to each other after the war in San Francisco. That is how my parents met and eventually married.
When the war started, my father was attending UC Berkeley. He graduated with an AA degree and enlisted in the army. Because of his education, he went to OCS and became an officer. He was a 2nd Lieutenant in an anti-tank platoon in the 99th Infantry when he first went over to Germany. He must have served in that capacity during the Battle of the Bulge as the 99th Infantry fought their first major battle there. About the time the army crossed into Germany they decided to reduce the number of anti-tank platoons, so my father was assigned to an infantry platoon. That is where he served until the end of the war.
My mother served as a secretary in the Navy Department in San Francisco during WWII. She never told me any more than that about her service.
My wife’s father served as a Lieutenant JG in the Navy during WWII. His claim to fame was he volunteered to get malaria in the research the Navy was doing on Malaria and the drugs necessary to treat it. That bothered him for the rest of his life. He never saw any naval battles that I know of.
I have always supported the military. I wish to honor all those who have served and are serving our country.