Memorializing

I had posted a tribute to my father on facebook over the Memorial Day weekend.

And since facebook isn't exactly a place to record your thoughts for posterity, I figured I would slip it over here in blogerville where at least I can look back at some point in my future and see what I was feeling as I run head first into my 50th birthday!

Keith Kennedy respectfully ponders his father on Memorial Day and wishes that he could thank him for his service.

Thank him for all the bullet holes and broken bones in his body.

Thank him for all his sweat and tears that spilled on the ground in so many continents around this world.

Thank him for the mental and spiritual scars that I can't even begin to imagine having to deal with.

Thank him for all of the tours of duty in places that have names I can't pronounce

Thank him for the courage it took to earn that Green Beret that he wore so proudy.

Thank him for his 200 jumps out of a perfectly good airplane and for his patience as he would take me to the jump zone so often to watch him and his troopers jump.

Thank him especially for the times when he would pull rank on a warrant officer and let me ride in a jump seat on the plane that took them up.

Thank him for the memories of the many times when his aide would come to our house and say "the major will not be home today - and then not seeing him for 3 months and having no idea where he went or what he did (but being so happy when he would return).

Thank him for the fact that at one time or another every single one of my friends got to watch him sleep with his eyes wide open!

Thank him for the sadness he must have felt for having to take all of this to his grave without ever being able to share them with anyone else because even on his death bed, he was still obeying orders that were classified as "Top Secret".

Thank him for keeping all of the horrible nature of war bottled up inside of him so it would not spill over to others around him.

Thank him for always remembering his fallen comrades on Memorial Day because I could see how heavily that weighed on his heart and I never minded putting you to bed after you had consumed enough whiskey to dull that ache that I never knew.

Thank him for the fact that he was brave enough to live with all those things and never used any of them as an excuse for anything in his life because there was no room for PTSD in his generation.

So thank you dad, from the bottom of my heart.

And I'd also like to thank every other soldier that sacrifices things we will never know of......

And may God Bless our tropps and let us never forget.....

I surely won't.

Peace