Tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the USA. It’s a very somber holiday for me. The day is set aside to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice while in uniform and service to their country. That’s the formal definition, but I feel it might be extended to those that perish many years later from service-related injuries. 

Each year I dedicate this issue of the newsletter to all those who placed themselves in harm’s way and tendered their lives for the rights and liberties granted to each one of us in the US Constitution. My father is one of those who paid this high price for you and me.

Your image this Memorial Day may be of someone dying on the battlefront, drowning at sea as their ship slips beneath the waves, or plummeting to the ground in a flaming plane. You may imagine a wounded warrior succumbing to his injuries in a battlefield hospital. Yes, all these things happen.

One of my own thoughts on this Memorial Day is of my dad, who was a medic in World War II. It’s troubling to even consider how many soldiers may have died in his arms.

My dad was part of General Bradley’s Second Corps. He landed at Anzio Beach in southern Italy and eventually was captured by the Huns on an October afternoon while giving aid to injured soldiers. He spent the remaining months of the war as a POW in Stalag II-B.

Another image I have is of the many brave warriors, like my dad, who died years later from wounds they received during the war. Many of those wounds were physical but the psychological wounds they endured were no less heartbreaking. 

A Deeper Understanding of Dad

This past winter I engrossed myself in a book-writing project. My youngest daughter had asked me to write about my life growing up. She wanted me to put my adventures and advice on paper so she could read about and learn from my experiences. 

I wanted to finish the book in time for her birthday at the end of March. This gave me about four months to complete the project from the time I started on it, the beginning of November.

The first thing I did was to create a master outline of all the stories that needed to be in the book. I quickly discovered it would be impossible to complete the entire book in the four-month timeframe. I determined the project needed to come to life as four separate volumes. Volume one was completed in time for my daughter’s birthday. It’s a handsome hardbound book that I’m pretty proud of.

Here's the cover for the book. It's a special hand-drawn map I made and the fictional towns, roadways, and places all come to life within the book series.