I just got back from Florida to see my 95 year old. Because of the fake pandemic, I haven't seen him in 3 years. During that time, I only could speak with him by telephone since that time. It's hard to have really good conversations with anyone when proximity and human senses are limited. To me, everyone has an incredible life of experiences and knowledge to share. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to hear these stories. To this day I still have not heard the 'entire' story of my dad's life. I probably won't either, but it's important to me.

My father fought in the Korean War and was wounded by gunfire being hit several times. He fought in the Battle of the Pusan Perimeter. What I didn't know about his heroism was the following:

Medics retrieved him after being severely wounded and helped drag him from the hill he was fighting on. Rescuing him took them down the hill and though a rice paddy, to which enemy fire caused the medics to abandon him there while they fled. My father recalled becoming very angry because of this. He ended up trying several times getting up to hobble on one leg only to fall and crawling while enemy fire could be heard. I still don't know how he got from the rice patty to being rescued. The most incredible thing I heard from my dad is he's not convinced the battle he fought on that hill was against the enemy, but it was another American company. While he was hospitalized, along other wounded, he learned that his buddies were killed.

While he was state-side in the hospital recovery, he met General MacArthur, who he told me he recalled "looked very pale" for an individual. I asked him what he thought of MacArthur and he said he didn't think much of him. And he was a more of a "grand-standing SOB more than anything else".

My father is 95 and I am still learning from him.