Roll Call

Art’s uncle, Ray, had a smile as wide as the Texas skies that he grew up under.  I have been thinking of him as Veterans Day approaches, and Art is reading the handwritten memoirs that Ray wrote in his eighth and ninth decades. He died at age 97.
Take this column as a reminder of how fast we are losing the lives and memories of those who fought in that cataclysmic war. If you still have the option of talking to a veteran, it would be so meaningful to hear their thoughts.
During World War II, Ray was in the railroad battalion, and stationed in India.  While serving his country, he had what he always called a “nervous breakdown” because of the horrors he witnessed in the war.  Now, it might be called PTSD, and treated differently.
Mental health in the wartime ’40s was not as advanced as it is today. It was his experience that the treatment was worse than the illness. However, the remarkable characteristic of that resilient man is that he came home and put himself back together.
He lived a long, productive life, raised a family of three boys, and attended one church for the rest of his life, while holding down a full-time job and running a small business on the side.
I look at the veterans I know, whether serving in peacetime or war, and I think how grateful I am for their willingness to put their lives on hold and risk themselves for our country. It is an honorable thing that they do, and it is right that we set aside a day to say thank you, and even do it in person when we can.
Beginning with Uncle Ray, I am calling the roll  of those men and  women  who are either family  or friends who served  our country: Raymond Lasater – Army; Milton Hall – Coast  Guard; Dennis  Hall – Navy; Dennis Ray Hall – Navy; Celeste Hall – Navy; Willie Magness – Air Force; Newell Wright – Navy; Preston Gibson – Coast Guard.
May we never be a country who forgets its soldiers.