Three brothers, three Vets. A fourth brother is not pictured. Timmy was US Air Force, but he passed before this little get together happened. My brother Mike, WS Army, Combat Vet- Vietnam (Purple Heart/ACM/ Bronze Star), My brother John, US. Navy (Okinowa- four years) and me: US Army Infantry.
My two brother brought that table down as a housewarming gift for our New little house. I made homemade "sloppy joes" with cucumber spears as their reward. I got rewarded by Mike's comment: "Kevin, your Sloppy Joes are as good as Mom made them." That felt good.
My grandkids were meeting their Uncles for the first time in years. You can't see it in the picture, but they pulled up chairs (along with their Mom) to just sit and listen.
The stories were all the usual good ones about Basic, AIT, and the differences between the Navy and the Army Training. My brother went to Camp Crocket, and I went to Tigerland. And we laughed about wearing ponchos to stop the BB's shot at from leaving little red marks. Because when the DI's checked you after the training, it was 10 pushups for every red mark.
We laughed about AIT, wondering why they even gave us Barracks, as we only slept in them a few nights. All the rest of the Time was in the Field.
Stories about live fire ranges, PT Tests, and some of the Weird Characters we met in our Units. Turns out, we all had a "Stinky" in training who refused to take a shower at all. It is tough to push through the initial stages of Basic, where you take a shower alongside fifty strangers. But it is even tougher when you don't learn to combat the shyness and get clean. And using a fire hose to hose one guy down was a story my grandkids will never forget.
Going down to the Day Room and asking if anyone wanted to play basketball, or football, and watching a dozen guys leap up and say: "Yeah, let's go." Or chipping in for a McDonald's run where a whole Squad sends a guy to get the stuff. Making change was always hilarious.
It seems marching is a big deal in all the Services. We sang some of the Cadence songs that that were decent enough to be sung in front of the kids. And they thought "jody" was not a nice guy and should give your girl back.
There was a moment where we all took our hats off for a moment of silence. We had all lost friends in either Nam, or through a training accident. And no matter how they died, while serving their Country...it hurts to see someone so young...gone. There were some somber stories there.
And then we talked about the buddies we made. Some for a lifetime. And John regaled us with stories of how he was the only guy in the Navy who didn't get a tattoo, and what that cost him in bar fights.
And then three hours had passed. My brothers had to get back to Virginia and Ohio, the kids had to go back home. I cleared my new table, cleaned up the kitchen and thought how cool it was to have a Family that served.