Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. Tomorrow the country will celebrate the holiday.
It is sometimes hard to consider myself a veteran. I served in the U.S. Army for over four years on active duty and in the reserves for another eight achieving the rank of Captain in the Air Defense Artillery. I never fought a battle or went to war. I spent a month in Korea evaluating the readiness and skills of our troops where the War still continues as does the longest cease fire/peace talks in history. I spent time in the Philippines where rebels were active but never came under fire. I worked with people who were part of Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada. I was in the reserves for Operation Just Cause and Operation Desert Storm (the first Gulf War). I had actually sent in my letter of resignation about a week prior to the invasion of Kuwait in a response to a get active or get out request. My resignation was finally granted in 1992.

As a child I remember my Dad being in Korea in the late 50's and in Viet Nam in the mid-60's. Do you remember when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989? I was there as a child in 1965 as they were putting some of the finishing touches on it. It is easy for me to think of my dad as a Veteran. Over eleven years of active duty and twenty plus years in the reserves. His dad was a veteran of World War II. It is much easier for me to think of them as Veterans than of myself.

Finally as I do so often on Veterans Day and Memorial Day I think of Major Frank King. You will not find him in a Google search or a listing in Wikipedia. He was my boss when I was stationed in Fort Irwin, CA as part of the Operations Group, Orange Team, Dragons as an Observer-Controller. Some men were assigned to Ft. Irwin because their career was on a rise and the assignment was considered a valuable experience and a step up the ladder. Others were assigned there because their assignments officer did not see the value in the experience or in the men being assigned there. It was the trash can where people went before leaving the service. Frank King was the former I was more or less in the latter category. But MAJ King treated everyone as a valuable member of the team and a person who would continue to greatness. He was a fine family man a stern but fair boss and good Christian. In the late Summer of 1984 after I had left Ft. Irwin and active duty to take a job as an engineer at General Dynamics I was told of Frank Kings death. A unit had rotated in for training in their brand new M1 Abrams tanks. The Orange Team worked in the Live Fire area where the soldiers used live ammunition (not blanks) and did fire and maneuver against pop up targets on the range. The M1s were out of control, MAJ King was driving around the new Commander of the Orange Team and both concurred that a cease fire and a talk to the commanders was in order. Frank picked up the microphone of the radio to call for a cease fire when he slumped over the steering wheel dead. After months of investigation it was determined that a stray round from a .50 cal. machine gun on an M1 tank had hit Frank in the back of the neck.
Major Frank King is buried in a little cemetery on the outskirts of Barstow, CA.

It is men like my Father, Grandfather, and Frank King that I think of as Veterans. And I thank them and all Veterans for their service to this country.