Today is Veterans Day, when everyone posts on Facebook pictures of their family\u2019s veterans and all the commenters thank them for their service.<\/p>\n
I posted a picture of my dad, Frank, when he was in the army in World War II. (Or as Donald Trump might say, \u201cWorld War eye eye.\u201d) I mentioned that he was one of six brothers in the war and that all were deployed overseas at the same time.<\/p>\n
If Dad were alive and knew anything about Facebook, he might have told me to remove the post. He was not a fan of the army. In fact, he had a dim view of the military and its demands on the national budget. (I posted it mostly because Veteran’s Day is also the anniversary of Dad’s death.)<\/p>\n
He did not enlist. In 1942 four of his brothers were already in the service. He, being the oldest, was still at home with his brother Wilbur, or Jack as he was commonly called. My dad had worked from the time he was about 12, as his dad was laid off at age 50 and never worked again, though I\u2019m not sure if that was laziness or a medical issue. Jack worked, too, of course.<\/p>\n
Then Jack received his draft notice. He and my dad went to the recruiting office. Dad told them that Jack made more money than he did, so if they wouldn\u2019t mind, would they take him and let Jack stay home to provide for his parents? They said sure. Dad joined, and then a few weeks later, they drafted Jack.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s only one reason my dad didn\u2019t like the armed services. Even though he actually saw little action, he didn\u2019t like the atmosphere and wasn\u2019t a big rah-rah guy who flew the flag when it wasn\u2019t needed.<\/p>\n
He saw most gestures of patriotism as phony. His view of the military degraded further with the Vietnam War, when he thought, as turned out to be true, that the military brass was lying to the American people about how the war was going. He didn\u2019t dislike the boys on the front lines; he felt for them. And he certainly had nothing against veterans, nor resented their benefits. In fact, to his utter amazement, he received a benefit of about $20 a month for the rest of his life because he was partially disabled: He had acne that may have gotten worse in the army. It reinforced to him the idea that the military didn\u2019t understand priorities and didn\u2019t know what it was doing. It was part of its wasteful spending.<\/p>\n
When I was a kid 60 years ago, people didn\u2019t make a big deal of veterans. They all served together\u2014taking six kids from one family wasn\u2019t common but many families had more than one sibling serving. They did it because they had to. That was my dad\u2019s take. Sure, Germany was an existential threat, but he probably would have avoided the service if he could. And veterans, they still put their pants on one leg at a time like most folks.<\/p>\n
As a backlash to the misguided disrespect that soldiers received during the Vietnam War, everyone now wants to thank veterans for their service. He probably wouldn\u2019t have a problem with that. But I\u2019m sure he would have bristled at the 7th inning stretches in baseball that now often include a special salute to a small number of veteran guests of honor. Hell, he could never understand why we sing the national anthem before a baseball game.<\/p>\n
(People think it was done since Francis Scott Key wrote in it 1814\u2014even before baseball was invented. Maybe it was sung at archery matches. In fact, the Star Spangled Banner tradition at baseball games started in 1918 when the band spontaneously played it, according to one source, as the country was still at war. It didn\u2019t become the national anthem until 1931. And it wasn\u2019t played while football players were on the field until 2009.)<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m quite sure he would have railed against the idea that we should take care of our wounded veterans, but it\u2019s all right if poor folks die because they can\u2019t afford to pay for healthcare.<\/p>\n
My dad would likely remind us that unlike the veterans of his day, there\u2019s a dwindling number who were conscripted. Most active duty service men and women today volunteered to be in the service. And maybe he would say that a good number of veterans join not because they want to fight to the death in defense of their country. They need a job. And one that gives them three squares a day and a roof over their head is a lot better than they might otherwise have in today\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re all in this together, he might say. That\u2019s great if you choose to join the military. When you\u2019re there, you rarely have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. He\u2019ll gladly pay for that. And he\u2019ll pay for your benefits. But not to the exclusion of the health and welfare needs of all our citizens.<\/p>\n
Maybe he would say that. I don\u2019t know. Maybe it\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today is Veterans Day, when everyone posts on Facebook pictures of their family\u2019s veterans and all the commenters thank them for their service. I posted a picture of my dad, Frank, when he was in the army in World War II. (Or as Donald Trump might say, \u201cWorld War eye eye.\u201d) I mentioned that he… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,221],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1929,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions\/1929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}