Memorial Day

We will get to how I spent my long weekend later.  Tonight, I want to take a few minutes to honor some of those who have served our country with valor and pride.

This is my Grandpa Gus.  He served in the Navy during World War II.  He was colorblind (my mom and her siblings thought that Sea Bees were CBs or colorblind sailors), and therefore didn't go to the front lines.  However, he was stationed in Japan, could type 90 words a minute on the typewriter, and took amazing pictures like this:

He's where I get my love for photography and my love for travel.  He came home, had some wild times with his best friend, Bob (who you'll meet in a minute), married my grandma, and spent the rest of his life farming, traveling, and being a darn good grandpa.  I wish that I would have been old enough to ask him to tell me some stories about the war, but I was only 15 when he died and you just don't think about those things when you are 15, and wouldn't appreciate them even if you did.

This is Bob, Grandpa Gus's best friend.  Bob was a Marine and did see action in the South Pacific.  There's hardly a single family dinner that Bob didn't attend.  He still does, when his health allows.  He never married, but I hear he was a hit with the ladies!  I really need to go see him this summer and ask him to tell me some of his stories just to know them. 

This is my dad's dad, my Grandpa Chuck.  He had married Grandma Betty just two weeks before he shipped out with the Army Air Corps (later called the Air Force).  He thought he was going to Japan too, but as it turned out he was sent to Panama, where he stayed for two years.  When I moved into my house, I found pictures that he sent home to my grandma of his time there.  This one's my favorite:

He died just four months after Grandpa Gus, and I didn't get to hear his stories either.  But I am so thankful that I have pictures to look back on.  Their legacies will live on.