Yesterday was Memorial Day. I have always tried to keep a spirit of reverence that day because I am so very grateful for those men and women who in various ways serve our country. However I have always felt third party because I have never known anyone who has first hand experience with serving our country. Well yesterday was my day to hear first hand experiences. My father in law served in the Vietnam war. He was drafted at age 25. He had served a mission and had finished his bachelors degree in social work. He told us many stories of how he made the decision to go and serve rather than find an excuse to get out of duty, of training with military weapons, of awkward issues with fellow comrades due to him being LDS, of his feelings when his helicopter landed and he was told this hole in the ground will be your home for the next 2 years, of how God was watching out for him the entire time because instead of being a soldier they reassigned him to be a counselor (he never had to engage in hand to hand combat), of how a soldier wanting to go home came into his office with a hand grenade and pulled the pin, of how he had to go to the front lines and meet with a soldier who was presumed to being going crazy. It seems too surreal that this is part of his life's story. A blessing that nobody died he knew, and a miracle that he is the man he is today despite the difficult things he went through. In God We Trust!
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