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Radio Diaries: Serving Your Country

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 my father signed up—knowing he’d be called up—and served with the Navy on an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific.  Dad never talked much about the hardships—about the kamikaze pilots that targeted his ship, about the crash landings of our own planes, about preparations for an invasion of Japan.

Instead he talked about discovering macadamia nuts in Hawaii, about fooling the censors when he wrote my mother that they were heading to the Elysian Fields.  This Greek term for paradise meant he was coming home.

Being in the war shaped my father’s life—as it shaped the lives of everyone who served and those who waited for them.  It shaped my life, as the child of a veteran, and I often asked other kids if their fathers had been soldiers.

If the answer was no, there better be a good reason—and my dad didn’t think there were many good reasons.

Just recently, I was with a group of friends when one of the men described how he had lied to the draft board to avoid serving in Viet Nam.  Everyone laughed except me.

I’m still my father’s daughter—even though the world is much changed.  I admit to a certain prejudice.  Also pride.