Looking back

When I was a youngster, Veteran's Day was known as "Armistice Day" -- a day originally called that because is marked the end of the First World War. Now it is celebrated to honor all who served in past wars.

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Looking into my family history a rich slice of America unfurls. My great-grandfather Patrick Carlin, in civilian life a home building contractor, was severely wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run – or First Manassas as my Southern friends recall it – when a Confederate Officer ran a saber through his shoulder. He never recovered from that wound and died as a result of it years later in 1876 at the Veteran’s hospital in Taugus, Maine. A distant member of my mother’s family, General Thomas Francis Meagher, son of the mayor of Waterford Ireland and a veteran of one of the many rebellions against British rule in his homeland, commanded the famed Irish Brigade in the Civil War. He died of drowning in the Missouri River after falling overboard when he was acting governor of Montana. One of his less admiring anti-Catholic biographers took pains to note that at the time of his death “he had been drinking.” He didn’t bother to identify the beverage but I suspect it wasn’t coffee or tea. It could be said that he died waterlogged but happy. My father attempted to join two of his brothers, both of whom as officers had served with General Pershing in his pursuit of the outlaw Pancho Villa, but was turned down because of hearing problems – a family curse I and my brother inherited. He was then drafted despite his disability and ended up stone deaf as a result of overexposure to enemy artillery in France while serving as a machine gunner. Your government in action. In WWII I joined the Marines two days before I was 17 years old. Prior to the battle of Iwo Jima where my unit of the 26th Marines suffered huge casualties I was detached from my company and sent home to the States to attend the U.S. Naval Academy Prep School. My replacement was killed in Iwo Jima. I joined the Marine Corps reserve after the war and when called up for active duty in the Korean War I was rejected because of an ulcer. That ended my military career, such as it was. My brother Jim is a retired Marine Corps reserve Major. My oldest son joined the Coast Guard and after leaving it was first a lifeguard in Daytona Beach and is now retiring after 30 years as a firefighter and paramedic in Florida’s Volusia County. He is a recipient of the Medal of Valor for life-risking heroism in a drowning incident. These are the things I remember on Memorial Day as I say a prayer for all those heroic Americans who died in battle that their fellow Americans could live in peace. Requiescat in Pacem