Memorial Day

Although Memorial Day has come to be a day of remembrance for all, it began as a day of remembrance for military veterans. In our family, among the children of Eli and Sofia, that includes Gene, who became an over-age Navy man, and who instructed Navy pilots at Fancher Field near Wenatchee, WA, and Vake, who was a Navy aviation metalsmith assistant.Both served during WW II. Sylvia married Buck Goodman, who was a career Coastguardsman, and who held Japanese fire bombers in his gunsites while they attempted to strafe the Oregon coast--but he had no ammunition.  Vake married Milly, a member of the Women's Army Corps, who served in Australia, New Guinea,and the Philippines, also during WWII. Of the grandchildren generation, Shirley married Jack Adams, who was a Navy man. Our other veterans are still living:  David served in the U.S. Army, and Jon was a career Army man. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant upon graduating from college and completing his work with the ROTC, and as an infantryman, served two tours of duty in Vietnam and two in Germany. Part way through his first tour in Vietnam, he applied to transfer to the Adjutant General brach, since he was turning over command of the Headquarters Company, First Battallion, 22d Infantry, to another officer.  He completed his 15 years with the adjutant general branch. He was promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel, signified by a silver oak leaf. I  married  a former Airman, Jerry Horn, who served during the Vietnam war, spending a year at Danang, near the North Vietnamese border. He was a weapons specialist, also known as a "Muzzle F***er," and still remembers the odor of the Agent Orange that he was bathed in. But it was that experience that sealed the deal after he quit piloting and  completed his training as an aeronautical engineer, going to work for the "Skunkworks," continuing his service to the US as a defense contractor.  Jerry's father Frank Horn was a Navy man, too, serving as a radar specialist on a Liberty ship in the Pacific, and as an occasional MP because he knew which end of a pistol to point at the other guy. His work in radar led to a career with the former CAA, then with its successor the FAA, and even to a few missions for the State Department, helping develop landing fields for jet aircraft in Brazil and Venezuela. Our thanks for your service, you all!