lest we forget

I’ve been busy with leaf raking, firewood splitting, football watching and sundry other autumn tasks, partly because they need to be done but largely because I need to be distracted from the huge lurch to the right U.S. politics just took. It likely won’t play out as badly as I fear, but it will be bad enough. Yesterday was mostly leaves and football, with more pigskin and less raking today. I’m trying to postpone my grieving over the current zeitgeist by grieving over some vintage zeitgeist.

Specifically, my time in Vietnam. Today is the 249th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Marine Corps. We started in Tun’s Tavern in Philadelphia, and our running joke is that we’ve never been far from a bar since. My exploits there, helping sort out hundreds of dead and wounded, resonates in my soul to this day. It is most defining experience of my life. I mark it in many ways, the most consistent one being a toast to my boot camp buddy Eddie Weekfall, who was killed there.

This is actually the start of a two day observance for me, continuing with Veterans Day tomorrow. On this particular one, please remember the 7000 or so female nurses who served in Vietnam. All eight of the women killed there were nurses.

I have the great pleasure of living with one of these earth angels, so I get a daily reminder of their special powers. Jude, in fact, is running a workshop on dementia today at our community centre. When she gets home, we’ll mark this special day like Marines always do: the consumption of beer and meat. I likely will start early on the beer part.