I used this photo last year, but it struck such a sentimental chord with me that I’m using it again.
God bless them, every one.
Joseph Ambrose, an 86-year-old World War I veteran, attends the dedication day parade for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He is holding the flag that covered the casket of his son, who was killed in the Korean War.





That is a most excellent photo, and it says it all.
My grandfather, God rest his soul, went through the whole of World War I on the front including the disastrous Gallipoli and The Somme. He was injured at one point, sent to a hospital for a few weeks and then sent straight back to the front. He was in the cavalry and they were sent on a death charge against the enemy on his 21st birthday. Most of his mates were killed that day. It’s no wonder it took him 60 years before he could start to talk about it.
Bernard, that photo just DOES something to me.
(searching for tissue now…)
Wow, Suzanne. Such experiences! Gallipoli? Good Lord. Talk about scarring…
My grandfather was in WWI. He never talked about it, but when he was old and blind he insisted on eating out of the dish he’d brought home from the Army with him…
And my dad had bad dreams about WWII ’til the day he died. He told us about some of his tour in the Pacific. It was the stuff of nightmares.