December 7th, A day that will go down in Infamy

[Dennis]

Not a problem, Dean. I won't forget.

Although I was born in 1946 I vividly remember my parents and their friends talking about WW2, Pearl Harbor, the Normandy Invasion, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and high school and neighborhood friends who were killed during the war. They talked like it was just yesterday and for them it was just yesterday.

My brother, Dan, and I joined the USMC in January 1964 after hearing stories of the battle for Okinawa told to us by a high school history teacher who had been there. Interestingly a former high school classmate recently wrote and said she always hated that history teacher because he glorified war and made it sound great so that other high school boys would want to enlist. I don't know if he glorified war or not. He was pretty honest about it though. I do know that Dan and I couldn't wait to get to Vietnam. Even when we found out fellow USMC friends had been killed in battle it only made our resolve stronger. We were told on one occasion by a higher NCO that we could stay in the states and avoid the war altogether but Dan told him we didn't join the Marine Corps to out the war in North Carolina.

I was telling my wife just this morning that in January 50 years will have passed since Dan and I went into the Marine Corps. It is a long time ago yet seems like yesterday to us. At 67 years old we remember both our parents war and our own. You don't forget easily.

I have to end this now. I seem to have something in my eyes.

God Bless America and the military who defends us all.

Dennis