Like most
kids my father will always be my hero. While he died suddenly sixteen years
ago, I regret not telling him more when he was alive. It seems as I have
matured and became a father of my own, his influence has not dwindled. I have tried to emulate to the best of my abilities
his positive attributes and I have learned from his mistakes. But that is not what this post is about. It
wasn’t until after his death that I realized he was a true hero. At the young
age of seventeen, he was a young kid aboard the USS Franklin during WWII. The
ship, an aircraft carrier loaded with bombs an fuel was attacked off the shore
of Japan. That was all the details our father ever shared with us. It was later
that I learned the details of this horrible tragedy. While the ship was
engulfed in flames many men jumped overboard to their death. My father stayed.
The captain refused to let them abandon ship. So for the next two months they
stayed aboard a charred ship with thousands of their dead shipmates aboard. This lasted until they were towed back to the
US. I cannot begin to imagine the mental and emotional horror that must have
been. While my father never displayed
the physical scars of war he did carry the emotional and psychological scars.
Sometimes these can be the worse. These
scars didn’t manifest themselves in violence but one only of distance and sadness.
There were moments of emotional instability mixed with some unresolved anger of
what happened mixed with the inability to express normal emotions. While my father
survived there was a lot of that seventeen year old boy that died that day. Something
was lost in war that he never got back. Even with my father’s great qualities
and character there was always a large part missing from him. There was
something taken that day in war the robbed his children from the wholeness of a
father. My point is twofold. First those who serve in war will carry the
residual effects for the rest of their life. Even if you cannot see the physical
scars, the mental damage is there. Sometimes pride and ego gets in the way of
them seeking help. The sacrifice of war in not limited to physical conditions.
Those of us who have not served cannot and will not ever understand. Second on this Memorial Day cherish and remember
the person who loved you and is gone. Remember that we never know what all they
had to endure in this life. We may never know the emotion scars they carry.
Scars cover old wounds with a tougher skin than the original skin to protect it
from getting injured again. Last but not least, the world is full of heroes if
we dare to notice. One may even be your own father.. Love & Miss You Big Daddy..
Thanks for
all who served and sacrificed to I could live free…
Tommy
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