Today is Veterans' Day and my thoughts turn to the many men I've known who have served, or are currently serving, our country in the Armed Services. Probably foremost in my mind is my dad who fought in the Korean War as a U.S. Marine. He served two tours of duty there, one 13 months and one seven months, with Reconnaissance Co., 1st Marine Division, Headquarters Battalion, as a scout; often the pointman. I cannot begin to imagine what kind of impact that kind of duty can have on one's psyche, particularly one so young. He was the age my son, Ramsey, is now -- eighteen. When Dad was discharged from the Marines after four years, twenty months of that spent in combat, he voluntarily checked himself into a Veterans' mental hospital in Detroit because he knew he was messed up. Diagnosed with "battle fatigue", today called "post traumatic stress disorder", he struggled to bring his mind, trained to fight and kill, back to civilian life. Add to that the fact that Korea was an "unpopular" war back home, not even being officially called a war, but a "police action", for a long time. Unlike Viet Nam veterans who came home and protested their treatment by their countrymen, Korean vets slunk quietly off to lick their wounds.
Dad stopped by yesterday to drop off some papers for me and I wished him "happy birthday" -- not his, which is April 2nd, but that of the United States Marine Corps on November 10th. He was pleased I remember this day is significant to him. Today I called him for Veterans' Day and thanked him for his service. As we talked and I asked him questions about his time in Korea, he summed it up, "War is war; it doesn't matter if you're there for a day or a year, it changes you forever." Well spoken, Dad.
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