Hello, my handsome soldier! I love you!
Today is the day to give you honor for the
years of self sacrifice you gave to our Country.
Long before I was blessed to know you...to love you...to respect you, it was a time in your life that you chose to serve your Country. And you served with honor. With pride. In December of 1968, you enlisted in the US Navy before you were drafted. It was what you wanted to do. I know you made your family so proud! I can only imagine how your mother must have missed her son. You were the one who made sure she never did without anything she needed. It must have torn at your heart strings to leave her and your dad. Yet, you went, and held your head high. Knowing it was your calling. What you had to do. And you were so handsome in your uniform...which you wore with the pride and dignity it was worthy of.
Through our eleven years of marriage, I dearly loved hearing your stories of the years you spent overseas as you served in the Vietnam War. There was one story in which you disobeyed a command as the Boiler Room Tech. It was because you knew the Order you were given would have resulted in a tragedy. In disobeying this Order, you saved the whole ship from blowing up and killing everyone on board. What bravery you exhibited! It's beyond my comprehension why you weren't awarded the Purple Heart. You so deserved that honor!
Then there were so many humorous stories you shared. I loved laughing with you over all of these. I think one of our favorites was the one in which you and some of your men, forced a guy to scrub with Lava soap and a wire brush because he refused to take a shower!
Darling, I know today you are so far removed from this world's wars, chaos, and heartache, but I couldn't let this day go by and not give you the honor you are so worthy of. I'm hoping and yes, believing, that God will give you a peek at this small effort on the part of your angel, who loves you dearly... to show you how greatly you are loved, admired, and respected!
Though you are temporarily gone from me and from our children and grandchildren, and others who love you, you will forever be in our hearts! And today, as our great Flag of the United States of America proudly waves, it is waving for you, too, my darling Odell.
I love you!!!
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