{"id":82,"date":"2013-05-19T18:33:08","date_gmt":"2013-05-19T22:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/?p=82"},"modified":"2013-05-19T18:38:56","modified_gmt":"2013-05-19T22:38:56","slug":"my-hero-my-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/?p=82","title":{"rendered":"My Hero – My Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"

6-14-12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The prompt:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pick a person who is important.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pick a photo of \u00a0\u00a0that person.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Start with: \u201cIn this one, you are\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dad-Saipan<\/a><\/p>\n

In this one, you are\u2026<\/b> writing home to your mother and father.\u00a0 The cover on your head is cocked jauntily, against all regulations.\u00a0 There is no one around in the background, just sandy beach.\u00a0 You probably got one of your buddies to take the picture.\u00a0 Your smile says \u201cHaving a wonderful time, Mom.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry.\u201d<\/p>\n

You had been on Saipan Island for two months, two years into your enlistment.\u00a0 The action wasn\u2019t bad yet.\u00a0 Iwo Jima was quite a few months down the road, and you had no idea.\u00a0 Most of the day was spent servicing the planes and going out on sub patrols in a borrowed Helldiver.\u00a0 Nights were quiet, with the occasional siren and mad dash to the anti-aircraft guns, or to a bunker for protection.\u00a0 I suppose for you it was the bunkers.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m following you now, retracing your footprints from Camp Lejeune and Parris Island to Quantico, then to San Diego, then off on the ships to the Islands.\u00a0 I just want to know what was going on.\u00a0 The stories turned out to be so sanitized or fictionalized that I lost track of you as a pre-Father doing whatever it was you did in the war.\u00a0 The photo of you is all that was left of your war record after the fire.\u00a0 I\u2019m lucky it was on the desk in the living room, and that someone had the foresight to pick up the whole thing and dump it on the front lawn.<\/p>\n

You gave me the gift of a few stories so that I could live the life of a World War II Marine vicariously through your eyes.\u00a0 You must not have known that I wanted nonfiction.\u00a0 The stories were thrilling enough.\u00a0 I just wanted to know the truth.\u00a0 I know now as an adult that telling the truth about war is never done lightly, never done with children, and only done safely with those who have shared the horrors.\u00a0 I just wish now that I had the courage to ask later in life, and that you\u00a0 had the courage to answer.<\/p>\n

Through my explorations, all of the papers from the St. Louis records archive are in sleeves in a notebook.\u00a0 Your complete military record is there. I have books about the Pacific war on the shelves, and the Marine Corps is digging up unit histories for me.\u00a0 I have one of those cases for the folded flag.\u00a0 It has room under the flag for the medals and campaign ribbons.\u00a0 I\u2019m slogging through the history, just as you slogged through making the history.\u00a0 Perhaps this is how I keep you alive in my heart and mind.\u00a0 Seeing you in your uniform, seeing you in the landing craft, seeing you with the rifle that used to live in the trunk in the basement of our old house after you were done with it.\u00a0 I know that was real.\u00a0 I held it. \u00a0I have your picture in a frame on my desk, you standing on the beach, hat cocked jauntily on your head.\u00a0 I see you, and I remember.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6-14-12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The prompt:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pick a person who is important.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pick a photo of \u00a0\u00a0that person.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Start with: \u201cIn this one, you are\u2026\u201d In this one, you are\u2026 writing home to your mother and father.\u00a0 The cover on your head is cocked jauntily, against all regulations.\u00a0 There is no one around in the background, just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-promptedwriting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}