Memorial Day.
Remembering.
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Veterans Burial Flag.
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Detectorists who dig up old items often talk about the thrill of touching a piece of history. It is easy to look at an old object and forget to appreciate that the person that made it, held it, and maybe cherished it, was a real person just like you and I. We usually can't recover the story that goes with the item, but research might be able to help you recover some of the story.
The photos shown above are all family photos from my family and my wife's. We are fortunate to know some of the stories that go with them.
In my father's case, he like many veterans, never talked about his service during the war, but again, I was lucky. My mother kept the letters he sent from overseas. Recently she gave the letters to me to keep. She is now 94. I never knew about the letters before. And, of course, I never read them. They share the most intimate thoughts and feelings of two newly married young people as they went through all the feelings that young newly married people go through, but also the strain of being separated by the war. What makes it difficult reading for me is not what you might think. I expected to read about the horrors of war, but what was difficult was getting to know my parents as young people struggling through the process of becoming the people that I would later know as my parents.
These photos, like the objects we dig up, all have stories behind them. I know some of the stories because of the letters.
In the letters I read the feelings of my dad when he observed two young boys that were blown up by a landmine. One boy had the top of his head blown off, as my dad described it in one letter, and the other had a hand and arm blown off. That was just after my dad arrived in Italy on the minesweeper shown in the photo above. The photo shows my dad asleep under the gun and a sunken destroyer off the bow. You probably can't see it, but there is also the a dog sleeping on the deck. They must have picked it up somewhere.
My dad asked in one letter that they send him more cheese and cookies, especially the cheese.
My dad was worried about having to go through the tear gas during training at Norfolk because he had a "whale of a cold." He had the same sinus problems that I have.
The bald fellow is my wife's father - also deceased. He and a close friend that was drafted with him from a small mining town in Pennsylvania went to boot camp and then landed at Normandy and worked their way across North Europe. One day they got the bright idea to shave their heads, which at the time seemed like a good idea. Later they found out it was a mistake because their helmets against skin was not comfortable.
One story he liked to tell was about how they had a cook that like to be photographed. They took advantage of that even when they had no film for their camera. They would tell the cook they needed more photos and pretend to take pictures of him in action just to get him to cook more that they could eat.
On Memorial Day we remember those who gave their lives in service to our country. My dad and my wife's dad survived the war, otherwise we wouldn't be here - at least not with the same genes. Our dads were among the lucky ones.
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Burial flags like the one shown above can be obtained from the VA Service and Distribution Center and sent to next of kin of honorable discharged veterans.
Here is a link to the National Cemetery Administration web site that tells you how you can obtain a burial flags and veteran gravesite markers.
Did you know that the first observances of what we now refer to as 'Memorial Day' were intended to honor those who died in battle during the Civil War. Claiming more lives than any other conflict in U.S. history, the Civil War required the establishment of the nation's first national cemeteries.
Here is a link that will take you to a site that tells many more interesting facts about Memorial Day.
You can find a lot of helpful information in the National Archives. You can research individuals and battles on wars going back to the Revolutionary War.
If you want to find information about a family member or track down a ship that sank while carrying gold bullion, the National Archives and Navy have tons of records that can be accessed. You can receive some information free, but there may be a price charged to cover the cost of copies for some records.
Remember.