Veterans

So today is Veteran's Day, and the courts and offices are closed, and folks are out mostly shopping to honor those who served in the military. My father was drafted 5 months after Pearl Harbor, and served nearly 4 years. After WW II ended, the Army wanted him to go to Japan to continue withthe occupation forces. He was jonesing to get home, to see my Mom and sister, who was a toddler and never met her father. So Dad employed Corporal Klinger tactics, feigning psychosis to get out, and it worked! He was honorably discharged with "mental fatigue" and returned to the Bronx to work 3 jobs to support his family. Meanwhile, he learned that the US soldiers in Japan were treated like kings -- a Hershey bar got a GI unlimited companionship. He wondered later if he should have gone... My brother in law Dennis is our family's other vet. He knew he'd probably get drafted during the Vietnam War, and instead joined the Air Force, where he served as a mechanic, mosly in Thailand. He returned with tales of exotic lands, and with a kick ass stereo he bought in Japan, which later became my proudest teenaged possession. I was just 6 when Dennis came home -- to a party at the local VFW Hall and a pretty Jewish girl who took one look at him and decided he would become her husband. She got her wish, and now they've been married over 45 years. But it's funny -- almost none of my generation served. We registered for the draft in 1979, if we wanted to be allowed to go to college, but the military had gone all volunteer. The only exception among my friends was Kenny, who joined the US Navy to pay for medical school, fell in love with the military life, and ended up as a flight surgeon. He saw action on the USS Saratoga during the Gulf War, and retired years later as a full Navy Captain. Other than Ken, the only guys I even knew who joined the military were those with no other prospects. It was either military or jail, or unemployment. Among Wifey and my friends, none of the kids join. The one person I can even think of is my friend Brian's secretary Janet's husband, who joined the Army, served in Iraq, and is now, thankfully, home and serving in Texas. It's kind of sad. It would be, probably, too big an undertaking, but the idea of some type of national service would be terrific. I'd have welcomed it as a young man -- maybe having to commit to a WPA-like program for a year or so, if not necessarily military. This country gives us so much, it seems the young ought to give back -- and mandatorily. As proud I am of my Ds, I'm proudest of how they volunteer. D1 spends a lot of time with her spaniel at hospitals and schools -- cheering patients and helping kids to learn to read. D2, through her sorority, does a lot of community service as well. The thought of either of them in the military conjures up memories of the great movie "Private Benjamin." Neither would do well in tents and on forced marches, but they serve nonetheless... So I read today's Facebook posts with a somewhat jaundiced eye. It's so easy for my generation to give words of thanks. It's a far more serious thing when we have skin in the game -- in the form of our sons and daughters actually serving.