What Memorial Day means to me:

Back to the Civil War a member of my family has been in every war that America has fought. I enlisted in the Navy after I got that that fab draft card that told me to report to Fort Ord. So I did almost 2 years on a LKA or translated from Navy jargon a Landing Kraft Amphiphious or a troop cargo transport ship. A big ship we carried mostly Marines and Seals from the Philippines to Vietnam opened up the front of the ship and put them on Seal craft and River Patrol Boats and slipped them into the Mekong Delta up river. Sometimes we would put a bunch down river in an allied controlled port. I often wondered how many of those 17 to 20 year olds made it. We would also do a turn around and pick them up too and bring them back. Being an electrician's mate on board that big ship behind 6 inches of steel plate I never heard a shot in anger. However not the case for the boys (MEN) I was carrying.

Turbo21(3X7)T.O.