11-11-11 Veteran's day

I am thankful for Veteran's.  I know many Vets.  I love many Vets.  For instance, my Uncle Vernon who fought in Vietnam.  My Uncle Rick who was in the National Guard for many, many years.  My cousin Zach who served two tours in Iraq.  Zach's wife Natalie, also an army vet.  Trevor's cousin-in-law, Rick (my hero, Sunny's husband) who is still serving in the Navy and has two tours under his belt.  Both my grandfathers-in-law, one Navy, one Army.  My father-in-law, another Navy man. I love them all.  But my favorite vet of all, is this man.

My Grandpa Preston.  Good lookin' right?  This man was THE man in every sense of the word.  He was humble, confident, wise, strong, a patriot, spiritual, patient, kind, generous, unpretentious, brave, loving, composed, and really, I could go on and on and on.  Just know that he was the best person ever.  It's possible that I may be recollecting him with rose colored glasses on but that's okay.  If these are my memories of him, than I don't want any others.  Last year I started to research his time oversees during WWII.  Reading about his experiences and looking at newly discovered pictures of him fascinated me.  It also made me insanely furious at myself.  Why had I only asked him about all this ONE time in all the years I had with him?  Stupid, stupid girl.  I even travelled to Utah with he and grandma one summer to attend a family reunion.  I had over 24 hours alone with them in a car and didn't ask him one question about his life.  But you bet your backside that I memorized ever word on the entire Garth Brooks "Ropin' the Wind" CD.  Idiot girl.

Luckily, we had a second cousin who sat down with grandpa and asked him all about his time in England.  This was awesome for me to pour over and only gave me a million more questions I was dying to ask him.  I hold the transcript of that interview close to my heart.  And just to show you what kind of man my grandpa was, here's an excerpt from that interview.

"The only thing we had on our missions, we never could take a lunch, because you were on oxygen all the time; they'd give you a package of gum and a candy bar, and that was it.  I would take that gum when I went on leave, and we'd usually go down to a place called Hyde Park, and we'd just sit on the grass down there, and I'd kind of badger kids into coming over.  They were real spooky of the servicemen for some reason, but finally I might get one to come over, and I'd give them a stick of gum, then they'd go back and tell their brother or sister, and they'd come over and get some.  I remember one day I had given three kids some, and then finally one came back and said, 'Do you have one more for my mama?' And I did.  I really enjoyed that".

~Grandpa is standing on the far left (the best looking one).~

I love that story.  Out of all the dangerous and exciting tales he had to tell, this one touched me the most.  He was always such a generous person.  Sometimes those missions were 14 hours long and I'm sure that candy bar didn't keep him very full. But he wasn't thinking about himself, he was thinking about the children that he MIGHT see the next time he was on leave and how much joy it would bring them to have a stick of gum.  Silly maybe, but I don't care.

I miss him terribly, and wish my own children could have known him and asked him the questions I never did.  I'm so grateful to have such an exemplary person in my life.  A person full of quiet confidence that made his 5' 6"ish frame seem more like 6' 5".  He was generous.  He was kind. He was brave. He was my grandpa. He was a Veteran.