Happy Veteran's Day!

We're showing old pictures today, right?

Me & my buddy Joe before a dining in at Camp GarryOwen, Munson, ROK.

The picture above is probably my favorite of me that was actually taken overseas.  Spent a year in Korea, and I swear, there's not one picture anywhere in my collection from a field problem or gunnery exercise or anything like that.  I get that it's Veteran's Day, and we're supposed to show ourselves all geared up in full battle-rattle, but I just don't have a shot of that.

But I've got one in blues with the stetson, and that's probably better.

Joe is a great dude.  One of my best friends, but we don't talk nearly as much as we ought to.  That's probably my fault.

With my buddy Mike (and his tank) during a gunnery exercise at Ft. Stewart.

Mike was my roommate for about 18 months back when we were both young lieutenants at Ft. Stewart.  My God, that was something.  

We had a blast, folks.  Mike and our buddy Brian are two of the very best dudes I have ever known.

Right after my 5th jump at Airborne School.

This is my favorite picture of me and my dad.  I've shown it a few times before and told this story countless times.  He came down to make my last jump with me at Airborne School and then hung around to pin on my wings.  He was in his glory!

My parents during Dad's mid-tour leave from Vietnam.

This is my parents in Hawaii during Dad's mid-tour leave from Vietnam.  They'd been married about a year at this point, and he's maybe just been promoted to 1st Lt.

No one could ever match his career path today.  The modern bureaucracy just wouldn't allow it.  But back when talent was all that mattered, Dad commanded four company-sized units--that's two separate rifle companies, a basic training company, and the Marine detachment aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz--plus 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division.  He went on to work at Special Operations Command at MacDill before serving as the Warlord (G-3) of the 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa. 

As pictured above, these two have a long road ahead of them.  However, they weathered a lot of storms together, too.

Family shot, yearling year.

This was my mother's favorite shot of our family, from the summer before Camp Buckner.  She had maybe fifty copies of this picture framed at various points around our old house, and even now, I've no idea what to do with them all.  I mean, I put one up downstairs with all the rest of the museum-type stuff, but there are at least ten more sitting in our attic, wrapped for posterity.

If you're interested, there are lots more of these family photos in the obituary that I finally wrote for my dad back in 2014 -- "Memorial Day: Remembering My Father".  If you've never read the story, I humbly suggest that it's worth your time.

Enjoy the day, everybody.

Go Army!  Beat Duke!!!