esrosedotblog

POST VET

I didn't post on Veterans' Day. I think out of pique that I didn't know or remember that it is one of the holidays that don't do 'as observed' Mondays.

It fell on a Friday and I was caught asking the kids and others why their school was closed on the day before the weekend rather than after.

I know this is boring but it shows my inattentiveness to holidays.

Of course, I went into a thing about it being a day without mail thus bumping my Netflix at just the time that I am midway through the Heimat saga which I am liking very much. A five.

But, once I got settled down, I started paying attention to the holiday and getting into it, as I am expected to, as a patriotic American.

Now, remember, I was a kid in WWII so we were keenly aware of how close war came to our shores.

In those days, it was Armistice Day because we didn't have a lot of veterans yet. They were still fighting men and women.

In school, we observed silence on the eleventh hour (of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) and prayed (yes, we had prayer in school then too) that the war we were in would be over soon.

My Dad was in it so I had some special prayers.

I don't remember when it became Veteran's Day. I do remember that I confuse it all in my mind with Memorial Day which is similar but not the same.

My Dad joined the American Legion. Somehow he had it in for the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). I think most guys from WWII went with the Legion. As I remember it, the VFW was older and by that time had become more of a drinking society. The American Legion was made up of the younger people. There wasn't any drinking until some years later when they got their own facility.

They had hats and so on. My Dad was Commander of his Post one year. I was sort of out of the loop. There wasn't much asked of the kids of veterans. We were just glad that the war was over.

John is a veteran. But, by the time I met him, he had been out for along time and didn't wear any organizations' hat. I may have asked him to wear parts of his uniform on an occasion or two but that is another story.

I am not a veteran. I am a member of the USAR; or was.

I did four years of ROTC in college including a six week summer camp between the junior and senior years. It was fun.

I did the deal where you went to active duty for six months and then had six and a half more years as a standby. Like the guys who are doing the Iraq thing now.

I was a piss poor soldier. I never qualified on the rifle range. They used a pencil to make holes in my target. Buddies.

I mostly skated. My active duty was in the Quartermaster Corps which did not exist for a number of years and has been reinstituted.

I new that the QM was likely to be farther back in the lines. They weren't, as it turned out, but they did have a higher percentage of pencil pushers than anyone else.

Why did I do this? To escape the draft!

My six months active duty was at the Fort Lee Officers Club. I was the assistant club officer.

My CO was a professional gambler and only wanted to be left to his game. We obliged. In turn, there was no hassle involved.

It was enjoyable.

Then, when I got out, I had made some connections and got to stay out of being assigned to a unit. I took a correspondence course and had to go to summer camp for two weeks (I think) every summer.

I had friends who went with me and we managed to skate there too. No one wants a two week reserve light 2 hanging around.

I had a close call once. The unit in Philadelphia, that I would have been assigned to, got mobilized for the Berlin Crisis. They were short some people and were casting around for bodies to fill out the roster.

My friend in the upper echelons alerted me to this and, once again, got me out of it. At least I never heard anything.

That unit was in Germany for more than two years doing nothing except having their careers and lives atrophy.

Eventually, I got de-listed. Not a bad thing. It just means that you can't get promoted to Captain doing correspondence courses.

This should make you feel good about the system anyway. You would not have wanted me promoted. Me neither.

Why am I not a veteran? Because a veteran has to do active duty sometime and I never did. I was not even in the active Reserve. I was in the standby.

I don't qualify for veteran benefits. I don't get a pension. I can't even join the American Legion. No hat.

That is my war story for this Veterans Day. Since, I am not one, it is more as an onlooker who got a little close to the firing line but not too close.