So sorry, my dad served between Korea and Vietnam, FIL Got lucky and never shipped over there mostly Europe, dh Gulf War 1.
I just reread my post and I feel compelled to say that, and I think that it will not really be understood, that although it was a horrible experience, it helped me through life in so many way.
55,000 young men and women, my age, never got to see and experience the things that I have since been fortunate enough to be able too. They never made it past their 21st birthday or even to it. I am a constant thorn in the side of the fine folks that post on "other" threads because I always seem to be at odds with their interpretation of important. My experience has made me more able to appreciate the things that I see and have a much wider vision of just exactly how bad some things can get.
In other words, I feel that it leveled me and allowed me to more easily see what things in life are important enough to get all upset about and what things are just parts of life that are meaningless in the long run. It gave me a different perspective. It hardened me concerning many things that seem to be a source of upset to a lot of people that never had that type of experience. I don't think that it completely killed me inside, but, it did indeed help define the difference between things I cannot control and those that I can.
I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me. It was, in many ways, a life giving experience for me. I, of course, hated every minute of it while it was happening, but, I feel that since that, I am more quickly able to define what really matters. I get called a pixie duster, apologist, because my mind immediately sees alternative reasons and definitely feel that I am a happier and wiser person because of that ability. I said wiser, not more intelligent, just more quickly able to connect to the positive then the negative. I have witnessed more negative than most anyone should ever have too.
As we approach Memorial Day, my thoughts are always focused on those names on the Black Wall in D.C. An accumulation of many highly intelligent and productive, brave and, in many ways, naive human beings that were never able to get to show the world what they could have done. Who knows, maybe one of those might have found a cure for Cancer by now, or solved the pollution problems or written the greatest novel ever written. We will never know. I don't want anyone to say... "thank you for your service" to me. Say it to that black wall. They were not ever able to go to WDW or to be concerned about a logo or a change in "the Hub". I'm sure they would have liked it no matter what configuration it is in. I have been able to do that and I refuse to allow miniscule little things affect me to the point of concern. I do tend to fight back simply because I see the foolishness of it all and sometimes just get tired of hearing the whining. We as Disney fans are able to participate in something that probably 80% of the world will never see. We get upset if there are a couple of dead spots in our cell phone reception. It all gets very confusing.
OK, soap box time is over. Let's continue on our path of silliness, bliss and harmonious righteousness.
As she was old I made hubby build a ramp so she could get into bed. Sounds awful, but she only had a few month's to live...due to lung cancer. We don't smoke, but we lived on an old land fill in Kansas. Check out what is under your land. Could be aliens, ha or something no one should have built houses over. And I kept wondering why all my neighbor's were dropping from cancer.
