For fathers day, like many people on Facebook I've changed my profile pic to the obligatory picture of my father. Nah thats wrong, anyone can be a father, this is a picture of my dad. It has been nearly 24 years ago that my dad passed away and this picture was the last I took.
I was home on leave with a new camera, like myself my dad was not crazy about having his picture taken, dad was sitting on the porch and said "go ahead and take one, it may be your last chance". It was.
I remember many things about my dad, he had been in the hospital shortly after this photo was taken and mentioned he thought his time was near. I told him he could not die because I did not have any leave on the books. Dad reminded me that they cannot deny you emergency leave, especially if it is the death of your dad.
My dad knew about this because he was in the Army during World War II and the Marines during the Korean War. Dad always shared about being one of three people ever drafted into the Marines, seems there was a line of people being processed into the Army when a man came up and said "I need three volunteers to join the Marine Corp., you, you, and you". During his time in both he was part of what we know as a MASH unit and always talked about driving a deuce and a half. I remember him sharing that when in the field he would at times put it into the "granny gear" take his hands off the wheel and let it go where it wanted because it was going to anyway.
As I grew older and was learning to drive and paralell park, dad would remind me about driving that deuce and that he could turn it on a dime and give you nine cents change. Going through some of my dads papers and we found a stack of certificates from the Army an Marines for thousands of miles of accident free driving. Ironically I think my dad had an accident in every car I knew him to own.
Another thing we heard about on a regular basis was his time in Germany, he liked to talk about the "pizza as big around as that table (we had a round kitchen table that measured 36 inches across) and beer this tall" (hold your hands about 12 inches apart) I had just turned 25 when I left for Air Force basic training, and after 25 years of hearing about the beer and pizza I said I'd never go to Germany, but in July of 1991 I actually requested orders to Rhein Maine AFB near Frankfurt Germany. It didn't take long exploring the local towns to find the "beer this tall." Then one day it happened, I was downtown with some friends and we happened by a pizza shop, I looked in the window and saw the biggest pizza ever, after overcoming some language problems I was able to confirm the pizza was actually "as big around as that table." I'd talked about getting some friends together to go and get one but never did, I think that was something that could have been enjoyed only with my dad.
My dad was special, and a great man, if you don't believe me I'll tell you again - My dad was special, and a great man.
