By Shannon Williams
Memorial Day is upon us and it is a time we all try to remember those who paid such a high price for our freedom. My Father was a career Air Force Officer and thus we were a military family. My father served over 20 years and had tours in Vietnam and several other conflicts during his service. The Military life was a good life for my family, but it was not one without pain, and we did not have to pay the ultimate cost of a family member losing their life in service to our country. We were around other military families where we lived and went to school, and some were my parents’ closest friends. We knew first hand of the pain when a life was lost and a mother and children left alone.

I had family friends whose father was a POW, ones who came back with career ending injuries and one or two who lost their father. As I child, I never really knew what to say to these family members; you wanted to let them know that you were sorry, but you still had your father. You wanted to let them know it would be ok, but your Dad came home and theirs did not. It was a confusing time in so many ways. Vietnam was one of first wars that played out on television. Prior to that when Dad would go away, we really never knew where he was or what was really going on, only what was shared with the wives. My Dad was in SAC (Strategic Air Command) for many years and thus we lived on SAC bases. We would be in the commissary and the sirens would go off, you would leave your groceries and go to a gathering place. At the time, I really never know what was really going on. I think most of them were drills, but at times, it would happen and Dad would be gone for a period of time.

Then he was sent to Vietnam. He had been grounded a few years earlier, due to health reasons, so he went from being a fighter pilot to a fighter pilot trainer and then to the flight line commander. So most of his time was spent at the base he was assigned to (Phan Rang Air Base). He and Mom would write each day, to assure that we got a letter every day. I was in the 3rd grade the year he was gone, and still to this day remember the TV coverage of the war. Seeing first hand where my father was and what was happening, was so different than the other times, when he was gone with SAC and we did not know where he was or what was happening, and there was no coverage of any of it on the TV. There was a time that we did not get any letters for a few days; my mother was so upset, we knew nothing, but the TV did say that his base had been bombed. Come to find out the Post Office got hit and it took a few weeks for the daily letters to start back. We got his letters for about a month after her got home, as there was a big delay in the mail at any given time.

The TV coverage was just awful for a young girl in 1968. it was all over the TV, good, bad and just awful. Then there was the protest, I could not understand why people were mad that my Daddy was off in a bad land, fighting for them. But they were angry and called them many names. My mother did her best to shield us from it all, but it was everywhere. It was not a time like it is today, that people stop and thank service men for their services, no one covered my father’s homecoming, he landed and we picked him up. It was different after that, he did not speak of what happened. He ended up having massive skin graft surgery due to a condition (we called it jungle rot) that he got in Vietnam. My father was a proud man and never claimed his disability for years, it was only when he wanted to go to Walter Reed for treatment that he claimed his disability, as that was the only way he could be seen for this condition at that hospital.

After my father retired he was active in the Retired officer’s golf club and traveled to golf courses all over the world with fellow retired military officers. Mother said that those trips brought him great pleasure and enjoyment sharing stories with those who had also served. At his service we had an honor guard and a gun salute, it was a fine tribute to his service and one of the few times that he wanted any of the military trappings. He saw service in the military as an honor, his father and grandfather served their county in both times of peace and times of war.

I also think about those many young girls, whose fathers never returned, and am so grateful and blessed that my daddy did. I cannot imagine what my life would have been if he had given his life for his country. I have attached one of my favorite pictures of my father , early in his career. So next time you thank a service man, please turn to his family and thank them also, as they also served.

[June-1-2021]