Memoria de...

I guess you could consider my family to be "lucky" when it comes to wartime. I have had a number of family members in the military; but when it came to war in the age of conscription, most were either too young or too old (my great grandfather would have been old enough to have served in the U.S. Civil War, but he was yet in the Old Country so he doesn't really count). There were a few notable exceptions:

There's not a whole lot known about my mother's family. The only two of whom I am certain were two cousins (brothers, in fact) involved in WWII. Joe was a pilot in the Pacific Theater and later also served in Korea; his brother, Frank, was killed on the U.S.S. West Virginia at Pearl Harbor.

On t'other side, I had three great uncles conscripted into the AEF in 1917. Uncle Joe C. planned on being an aviator, but after his first flight he reconsidered; he was lucky enough to avoid being sent "over there." Ditto with Uncle Anthony Simas; my grandmother was scant with information, and I was young enough to be complacent with scant information while her mind remained sound, yet I seem to recall her saying that he had landed a cushy desk job. Uncle Joe Simas was less fortunate, returning to the Western Hemisphere shell-shocked and weary. He survived the armistice by a mere fourteen years. Although living in the Azores at the time, my great grandfather would have been old enough to have served in the U.S. Civil War.

Others may have more spectacular family war stories, but that is mine. On this Memorial Day, here's not only to the fallen soldiers, but to the survivors, the desk jockeys, the message runners, the factory workers, miners, farmers...all those of the great American infrastructure who have kept and continue to keep our nation rolling, especially under duress, as well as the families who love and support them.