Today, I was thinking of all my relatives who served. Great Uncle Al served in the Coast Guard. His brother Isaac was in the Army. He got the flu around 1918 and died. They are both buried in St. Cloud, Minnesotta. Charlie Berglund did not serve during WWI or WWII. He stayed at home, farmed and raised his family.
My father served at a Volunteer and was in Alaska, Kodiak and Matanuska valley. My Uncle Carl was in the Air Force and served in Japan. Uncle Paul was in the Air Force. My first husband, Mike, was in the Army in Viet Nam and discharged with schrapnel and a Purple Heart. My present husband, Tim, served in the Air Force and was mainly in Texas.
My Mother's brother, Tater, was in the Army and served in Europe. He was wounded and recovered in England and hated English food. He helpe free POW camps. Grandma Horn showed me the telegrams from the Army and his Purple Heart.
My husbands Father, Vester, joined the Army in 1943, he served in Hawaii as a medical corpman, which is a close as a Seventh Day Adventist can get to being a military objector. He spent some time in the brig for refusing to pick up cigarette butts on Sabbath.
My brothers, Richard and Phil both served in the Navy. Richard spent two terms in Viet Nam; once on a gun boat in the Mekong and a second one as a Dog robber. He loved the sheer chicanery of that job. Richard stayed in twenty years. Phillip was in about fifteen years. He worked on Raytheon equipment then and when he left the Navy he worked for Raytheon and traveled to Spain and Italy.
Gentlemen, thank you for your service.
