Remembering Our Fallen Soldiers

Today is Memorial Day, the day we honor those soldiers who have died in war.  I have had 5 uncles serve in the armed forces and 1 in the reserves.  My grandma’s 3 sons and one step-son served during the Vietnam war.  One son didn’t return.

My mother relayed the story to me and, like most of us, time has dulled her memory of some of the exact details. 

My Uncle Eugene was a tall man with curly auburn hair,  a great sense of humor, lighthearted and carefree. 

As a lad of about 7 or 8 he sold newspapers to the neighbors, about 6 a day.  One day, Uncle Eugene went down to the local hardware store and bought his mother a toaster using some of the money he had made from selling papers and put the remainder on credit. The family was well known in the small town where they were living so they were willing to extend credit. Selling only 6 papers a day it took a while to pay this off.  My grandma kept that toaster he had given her at about age 8 till she passed from this life 32 years later. 

He signed up in the Army when he was 18 or 19.  When war broke out in Vietnam he was sent there.  One day 2 boys in his unit didn’t return so he went looking for them in a Jeep.  He was ambushed by some Vietnamese and shot in the knees.  He bled to death.  Meanwhile, the two men he had went looking for returned.

He was killed September 12, 1967 at 22 years old. 

"Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o’er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Dream of battled fields no more.
Days of danger, nights of waking."
~Sir Walter Scott~