Memorial Day Recollections

It is my pleasure to spend time in one-on-one relationships with military veterans and their families.

From the time that I enlisted in the Navy during 1962, through today, I am very thankful that my experiences, training and ability to utilize the G.I. Bill and the Health Professions Scholarship Program to complete my professional education created the opportunity for me to have worked directly with World War I & II, Korea, Vietnam and recent conflict veterans.

The lessons that I learned from my father and uncles, who were World War II and Korea veterans, my grandfather who was a World War I medic, my brother, Jack, a 28 year Air Force Master Sgt. suffering the consequences of Agent Orange exposure, my brother Mike, Vietnam Navy veteran, my cousin Bill, Army 1st Cav., who lost a leg in Vietnam, my wife's cousin, John, a highly decorated Army field commissioned officer, who recently passed away from the ravages of Agent Orange, and my oldest godson, Jefferson, who one year ago was KIA from medical complications of his service in Iraq and Afghanistan, taught me that our veterans not only need to be thanked and welcomed home but listened to nonjudgmentally on a one-on-one basis.

I don't tell them my stories, I listen to theirs.