May your father rest in peace surrounded by all the other patriots that gave their lives in the service of our great country. I include in this thought my own father, a machine gunner in the infantry who received numerous medals, citations and a purple heart. He was the only infantryman I ever met that saw action during WWII in both Europe and in the Phillipines.

He told me a story I'll never forget. After being pulled out of the European theatre and enduring a 4 week Atlantic troop ship crossing they were put on a train in Philadelphia with destination unknown. As he was looking out the train he started to notice familiar landmarks and realized he was on the train tracks that ran behind his home. It was at that moment his home came into sight and he saw his mother hanging laundry in the backyard. He hadn't been home for over 2 years. He started to cry and a soldier next to he asked what he was sobbing about and he pointed out the window and said we just went past my house and I saw my mom. It was then than the other soldier started crying. In a few minutes the whole trainload of troops were crying.

He was in the Phillipines for about a year, had a bad case of malaria and was finally sent home at the end of the war. His unit liberated a concentration camp which he said you could smell 20 miles away with the stench getting stronger each step you took. I won't go into gory detail but suffice to say he saw so much death and destruction but somehow managed to make it home alive. He never saw a shrink, was never diagnosed with PTSD because all that stuff was unknown then. But what he did was faithfully attend his army reunions and had is buddies to pray and cry with. I miss my Dad as I'm sure you miss yours. May God bless them all.