Yippee!

Another wintry day ahead of us. A chance of showers and all that goes along with such a forecast. Blah!

And it's a holiday of sorts; Veterans Day. OK, I'm a veteran. But I've always felt, and still do…that the holiday is for someone else; from a different time and place. And there is this… what's to celebrate? I have my own private celebration on this day because I was fortunate enough to avoid the misery of Vietnam. I already had re-enlistment papers filled out for an additional 6 years as a Navy Hospital Corpsman. I wanted to sign them; I was going to sign them. But the re-enlistment officer wouldn't guarantee that I would be transferred away from Camp Lejeune as I wanted. He said he would try but that he couldn't promise. He even offered me $5,000 and a chance to go to Aviation Med School, but I wouldn't sign without that promise. Stalemate. And it was 1961.

(Pop psychology 101; perhaps I feel guilty that I didn't go to Vietnam? Or I feel guilty because I feel so grateful that I didn't go?)