On Veterans Day

My grandfather, Robert Millard Horn, United States Army, WWII

(Isn't he a dreamboat?:)

When I visited my grandmother in September, I made my way through some of our family's geneaology documents.  In addition to discovering some family names that I am happy to leave in the past (Peleg and Restcome, for example), I was amazed to discover that my family members have fought in every American war from the American Revolution to our current War on Terror.  

This Veterans Day finds me 100 pages in to The Pacific, written by Hugh Ambrose.  His father, Stephen Ambrose, wrote Band of Brothers, which was later made into a popular HBO miniseries.  Perhaps it is my Air Force brat upbringing or my love for history, but I have always loved books and movies about wars.  In some way I feel an obligation; though difficult to read or watch, what is in my imagination was their lived reality.  The least I can do is read, watch, empathize, appreciate, learn.  

But this is the first time I have read this type of material since becoming a mother.  And with every page, I am reminded that these men were each a mother's baby boy.  With every difficult passage that makes me wince, I imagine my son and whisper a quick prayer, "Lord, let my son never go to war."  

I suppose that's just it.  No one wants to go to war.  No one wants their loved ones to go to war.  And yet brave men and women throughout the centuries--people with whom I share a name and a history--have selflessly and bravely gone to do what must be done.  We are free today because of their sacrifices.  

So to my ancestors, to my grandfathers, to my uncles, to my daddy, to my brother, to my cousin... thank you.  I am proud to be your "brat." :)