Memorial Day Memory

My grandfather (age 95) came down this weekend for my family's barbeque. He hasn't talked about his military service much, but he and I spent the afternoon talking about his time as a Navy Commander in World War Two. He enlisted in the Navy the Monday after Pearl Harbor when a Navy recruiter showed up at his civilian flight school graduation. He was an agriculture teacher raising four young children (along with his two youngest sisters) with my grandmother in Highland, Illinois. I asked him why he enlisted in the Navy, when he could have easily gotten a deferrment (he was in his early 30's), and he said:

When I was nine, my father took me to a parade for returning World War One soldiers. He told me that every twenty years or so, the whole world went a bit crazy and went to war. I promised my father then that I'd be ready for the next one."

I don't know how many nine year olds feel the same way today, but I'm damn glad men like my grandfather did then.