Ken Burns, War: Thoughts of my Dad

I watched Ken Burn’s War again tonight and was moved. The names of places passed through on trips kept popping up, especially in France. As I watched each episode thoughts of my father kept surfacing. I remembered as a boy going up to the attic at my grandmothers and trying on the Army uniform jacket that hung on a hook there. It was so small that only a skinny kid could have fit into it. I also remember finding a bronze star once in a drawer at home; I still do not know how my father received it.

My dad never really talked much about WW II and his experiences in it. I only know he was a sergeant because of the stripes on the coat. There is only one picture I ever saw of him during that time period, indeed a skinny kid with another standing next to him. As my dad lay dying in Kingston Hospital our troops had just entered Baghdad and it was on the TV in the room. He just stared at the screen in silence, he never commented on it. He was a man that thought war is hell. I wonder if another boy in the future will climb attic steps to try on a uniform jacket. Historically the odds are great.