military

And On The Twenty-First Christmas . . . .

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Twenty Christmases had already gone by. Although I was much too young to remember the first one, several others were special as when I received a Radio Flyer coaster wagon and found a Schwinn bicycle under the tree. 

Those memories of lights, tinsel, and colorfully wrapped presents crowded my mind, became a wonderful and timeless blur. Yet, as special and varied as all those previous Christmases had been, none of them prepared me for the 21st one.

The timing could hardly have been worse. Only a dozen weeks before, I had been abruptly lifted from the niceties and comforts of … Read the rest “And On The Twenty-First Christmas . . . .”

In The Name Of Dignity

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It was 1953. A war had boiled up in Korea and we four, Morris, Wayne, Robert, and me, had been requested to help win it.

That had meant joining others from everywhere for sixteen weeks of basic infantry and artillery training. Ordinarily, that would have been enough, but we were among the select few who had volunteered for and had managed to survive eight weeks of leadership training, a grueling assault on both body and brain. All of it was to toughen our abilities and resolve, give us an edge on the battlefield, keep us from being shipped back home … Read the rest “In The Name Of Dignity”