National Military Appreciation Month: Building Use and World Changes

 



All of his children were afraid of my father-in-law. He was stern, gruff, and spoke little. It was not the same with me. Not only was his son (the one I married) very much like him, but my father-in-law and I had the US Army in common. I had joined the Armyjoined the Army in 1973, at the end of the Vietnam War; my husband failed his physical and remained a dependent throughout my Army career. In 1975, I received a direct commission as an Army officer. This gave my father-in-law and me a common frame of reference for our military service.

My father-in-law liked to talk to me about his WWII experiences as a Captain stationed in Alaska because even though I was a Vietnam Era veteran, I understood what those experiences meant to him and mean in general. 

At one point, he and my mother-in-law came to California for his birthday, just a couple of years before they both died. They wanted to visit Fort Ord, where he did his basic training, and they wanted to see the house they first lived in. Ft. Ord had become Ord Community when the base was closed as a result of BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment in the mid-1990s), and Salinas had grown so much that he could not find the area let alone the house where he lived.

There was one bright spot for him. I was working in an educational leadership position at the Presidio of Monterey. At PoM were WWII buildings where my students were studying. My father-in-law located the building from which he had deployed those many years ago, and he delighted in sharing his experience with my students who were fascinated by the history of the place where they were sitting every day.

At some point -- one of the highlights of my experience with my father-in-law -- came when I was promoted to first lieutenant. I was visiting my in-laws, and he went upstairs, returning with his WWII captain bars. 

"I may never have a son who makes captain," he said, "but I may have a daughter-in-law who will."


For posts about Betty Lou Leaver and her books, click HERE.

For more military appreciation posts, click HERE.


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