For John, BLUF: Another Memorial Day, but our duty continues.
Which Used to be known as Decoration Day
Because this was the day we used to decorate the graves of Civil War Veterans.
On this day, especially, I mourn those I have know who were lost, including two roommates who were subsequently killed. One was Alan Trent, from Conneticut, my Freshman Year Roommate at the Air Force Academy. Subsequently he died flying a Close Air Support mission in South Viet-nam. The other was my Pilot Training roommate, Aado Kommandant, from Estonia originally, who dies on his first mission out of Cam Rahn Bay, in 1966.
For almost 59 years I have been married to an Air Force widow, and have raised her two original children as my own. He dies on a training sortie while on day 179 of a 90 day deployment to Okinawa to provide air defense while the original F-102s were deployed to Southeast Asia, for the same purpose. His plan was never found and he was designated as missing and presumed dead.
I never met Robert Harlan, but I subsequently served with some of his friends, includin Greg Smith, Waynr Bechler and John Brennan. I believe adopting his children gave me a special responsibility to a fellow comrade, who I never met. But, all of us alive owe some debit to those who gave their last full measure of devotion to our Nation.
Regards — Cliff
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