My latest layout done as a tribute to my WONDERFUL father for Veteran's Day 2006:
Credits can be seen here
and you can see the rest of my gallery if you should feel so inclined by clicking the "bretta" in Home » Member Galleries » bretta
at the top of the picture (or right here, LOL).
Journaling reads: Dad You have my utmost admiration and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for serving our country. You joined the U.S. Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, never imagining that you would be in a war in Vietnam just a few years later doing a job very few people would ever want to do. That job was Graves Registration - recovering the bodies of soldiers killed on the battlefield and preparing them to be sent home to their loved ones. It's a job no one really thinks about - that someone had to go into hostile territory, usually by helicopter and often with the enemy nearby, to search for and recover a body. Sometimes you would be pinned down all night while on a mission, just hoping morning would come quickly. In your words, "Everything in me wanted to run and hide, or escape, but duty, honor and country kept me steadfast on the task at hand." You've told me stories of having to just disassociate yourself with what was going on around you and just get the job done, of having to wear Aqua Velva cologne on your surgical masks because the stench was unbearable, of struggling through putting pieces of bodies back together again and of things just so horrible that I can't bring myself to write about them. A special job, because yours was the last point of contact before a soldier went home. You were able to treat each person with dignity and respect and know that what you were doing, although difficult and painful, would bless the family back home.
You were so good at your job! After Vietnam, you served at various bases, and then the Army sent you to Fort Lee, Virginia, to the Quartermaster School where you were able to teach others about working in Graves Registration. You were so good, in fact, that you wrote the Army's policies on Graves Registration - their guidebooks, courses and manuals. Now retired, you still serve others. You still burn with zeal and your family burns with you, because of seeing you be an example of true patriotism and service. Everything in your past led to the shaping of the wonderful man you are today. I'm so very proud of you, Dad!
Credits can be seen here
and you can see the rest of my gallery if you should feel so inclined by clicking the "bretta" in Home » Member Galleries » bretta
at the top of the picture (or right here, LOL).
Journaling reads: Dad You have my utmost admiration and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for serving our country. You joined the U.S. Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, never imagining that you would be in a war in Vietnam just a few years later doing a job very few people would ever want to do. That job was Graves Registration - recovering the bodies of soldiers killed on the battlefield and preparing them to be sent home to their loved ones. It's a job no one really thinks about - that someone had to go into hostile territory, usually by helicopter and often with the enemy nearby, to search for and recover a body. Sometimes you would be pinned down all night while on a mission, just hoping morning would come quickly. In your words, "Everything in me wanted to run and hide, or escape, but duty, honor and country kept me steadfast on the task at hand." You've told me stories of having to just disassociate yourself with what was going on around you and just get the job done, of having to wear Aqua Velva cologne on your surgical masks because the stench was unbearable, of struggling through putting pieces of bodies back together again and of things just so horrible that I can't bring myself to write about them. A special job, because yours was the last point of contact before a soldier went home. You were able to treat each person with dignity and respect and know that what you were doing, although difficult and painful, would bless the family back home.
You were so good at your job! After Vietnam, you served at various bases, and then the Army sent you to Fort Lee, Virginia, to the Quartermaster School where you were able to teach others about working in Graves Registration. You were so good, in fact, that you wrote the Army's policies on Graves Registration - their guidebooks, courses and manuals. Now retired, you still serve others. You still burn with zeal and your family burns with you, because of seeing you be an example of true patriotism and service. Everything in your past led to the shaping of the wonderful man you are today. I'm so very proud of you, Dad!
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