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This week I would like to recognize and honor service personnel, past and present.

I came from a military family. My father was in the army in World War I. I still have his papers from when he was called up, and his discharge.

My three brothers served in World War II, one in Navy, one in the Air Corps and the other in the Army. All were in the fighting, two in the Pacific and the other in the African and German theaters.

I remember how proud my father was when my oldest brother was home on furlough midway in his Army career. He had just returned home from the fighting in Africa, and my dad was wearing his service hat.

I remember how little my brothers would talk about the war after returning home. Just recently, I was going through some of my scrapbook material and ran across a bundle of letters to me from my brothers, written during the war. I can’t seem to toss them, but know that no one else would be interested in them.

I was too young to make it into the military during the big war.

My two brothers who served in the Pacific joined for a brief get together in Tokyo harbor at the war’s end.

I kept track as best I could where they were and what was going on there.

In 1950, I got my letter from the president calling me up for the Korean War. It was early in the “police action” and they were looking for cannon fodder to temporarily plug the lines in what was a rout of our forces.

There were 35 of us called up from Whitman County. We went through the regular routine, then the doctor singled me out and there was a conference between the doctors. I didn’t pass the physical. No, it wasn’t bone spurs, but rather something that I have lived with all these years.

I was pretty slim at the time and thought if I stood sidewise it would have taken a skilled rifleman to hit me.

There were two of us who didn’t make it; myself and Lavern Torgeson. Torgeson was a pro football player from Lacrosse who played for Philadelphia. He had so many scars on his knee that they didn’t want to take a chance on him.

It was a disappointment to my family, and I often wondered if I was tough enough at the time to fight in the war. I have read a lot about the Korean War and the hardships faced by our men and women who served there. It is impossible to tell how well you would measure up after Uncle Sam sends you to the front lines, most agree; it’s the enemy or you, a pretty decisive choice.

I didn’t have further contact with the military until the Vietnam War.

I was in Vietnam for periods in 1968, ’69 and ’70.

While service personnel didn’t get the support they deserved during this war, it was a very dangerous assignment. Even if you were support staff, the war still came to you. It was very difficult to tell who was friend or foe.

I am sure many of our servicemen and women wondered if they were tough enough.

So to all outr veterans, past and present, I say you were tough enough.

Today, we honor our veterans and thank them for their service.