A couple of weeks ago I decided to put fingers to keyboard and revisit the reasons that compelled me to volunteer for this third consecutive deployment. If nothing else it serves to help me see a larger view of why I am here. Each is enough to satisfy the question in my mind, why. The thing is, when you get so ‘in the zone’ with the pace of the work here your reasons for doing it get lost and I think it’s important, for me at least, to take a step back and remember.
There are several, but for now let’s focus on Reason 3:
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| PFC Richard James Beebe |
One of those things with family that binds us is legacy. I couldn’t tell you whether or not my family had any ‘war heroes’ in it or not but there were plenty of heroes in my mind at least. There was my grandfather, Lloyd Clementson, who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. My uncle Earnest Clementson was stationed on Oahu during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Later his brother Howard would join the fight in Europe. One the other side of the family my great-uncle Bill was in the pacific theater and survived both Burma and Guadalcanal but was so stricken by the experience he didn’t touch a firearm until many years later, when he went hunting with his son only weeks before he died. My grandfather, Richard Beebe served in Korea in an anti-aircraft artillery battalion. One of his brothers, being a little on the small side, was a belly or nose gunner in a flying fortress during WWII.
There were many more and though none talked about their wars and though there were many I never met, including my grandfathers, I always marveled at what sort of adventures they must have had. These were my first heroes and as early as four or five years old, I wanted to follow in their footsteps. Tragically, even to this day I know so little of their stories because as a child I didn’t know how to frame the questions. As the years have passed I have many that will likely go unanswered. But I do take solace in knowing that despite the differences in everything from equipment to the nature of our enemies, I’ve had the chance to walk a similar path. They all answered the call to fight, Japanese, Germans, Italians, and North Koreans.
So I’ll follow this path a little longer, at least until this fight is done and I'll ask you to stop by again next week for reason number 4.
1 comment:
Carrying on a fine family tradition! The boy's school is honoring veterans, we get to fill out stars with everyone in the family that's served. I stuck to immediate family still living, so we're getting five stars! I also need to hunt down some photos of us in uniform. :)
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