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January 05, 2006

family tradition

Last night my oldest daughter asked, "Dad have there been a member of our family in every war?"

"Yes", I replied, "all the way back to the Civil War, as far as I can figure, there have been at least one if not more in every major war including Nam."

"Would you want me to enlist when I am older and fight in Iraq?"

Where did this woman child come from? Yesterday, she went shopping with her mom to buy a dress for winter formal. Today she asks me if I want her to go to some strange far off land on the other side of the planet and fight in a war I don't completely understand.

How do I answer her? I am a veteran and I come from a long line of veterans. Whether to seek adventure, fortune, or fame, my family has served as honorable as possible given the vulgarities of war. There is no honor in killing, even if it is to protect one's own. But this is my little darling daughter. I fed her, cared for her, and changed her shitty diapers. When she was 5, I held her hand as we walked to her first day of elementary school. I watched her grow from a gangly, little girl with more questions than I could answer in to a young woman of fifteen planning for college.

"No father wants for their children to fight and die in a war hon.", I said sheepishly.

But hell, if everyone felt like that, you couldn't get a decent war off the ground, as Archie would say.

Posted by roadapples at January 5, 2006 01:38 PM

Posted by: Archie at January 5, 2006 09:51 PM