Don’t need any condolences but just wanted to let people on here know what a great guy he was. Vietnam vet who flew B52’s on strikes against the North Vietnamese, and later on C17’s after the war until his retirement. Was working on Ft Lewis for a while on some stuff like a new dental clinic among many other infrastructure projects on base, and had a lifetime of national service in one capacity or another. He passed away early this morning from lung cancer and its a habit I still have as do a ton of AD and vets.
If you get a moment tonight just raise a glass for him. Again don’t need a thread full of “my condolences” just put in a word to all our Vietnam era guys, and think about the job they did. I can’t really say he and I were very close but I understood him, and we always had a nice mutual respect. He stood up for me when I moved us out here to TX away from WA and my wife’s mom objected, and he used to send regular emails with all the photo’s he took. His side hobby was photography, and has some published stuff in university text books and such.
My FIL died last week. We were not particularly close but always got along well. Also a vet, Korea, and very active in the American Legion.
He was ill for an extended period, suffered from progressive dementia the last few years, and was able to die at home with the care of family and hospice. Tough road for my wife and her siblings, as their mom died almost thirty years ago from breast cancer and the kids handled most of his care.
Hard to watch my wife live with the stress of his situation. And hard watching her grieve his death, as he was never an emotionally demonstrative guy towards his children. I’m relieved it’s over.
FWIW my wife did hospice care for over a year before transferring within the company to a part time job. Dementia is a terrible thing to deal with, and she got hit and spit on plenty of times. Can honestly say I don’t think I could do it, and the worst part is they are still legal adults so you can’t do anything. My wife got punched pretty good earlier this year by one, and all someone in her position can do is walk it off. As a husband I want to go fight an 80 year old (sarcastic) but families who have to deal with them the other 95% of the time have it way worse.
It’s getting about that time where we are going to lose a lot of Vietnam Vets. It’s a shame how they were treated and subsequently we don’t hear a lot of the great heroics that happened there.
My uncle served in theater over there. He died of lung cancer when I was in Basic and I never was able to talk with him about what he did.
I honor those old warriors and am gratefull for being able to talk with them.
Back in the 80’s when I was a teen doing yardwork at my grandparents, my grandfather pulled a handgun on me more than once insisting I was a stranger on his property. He would demand I “get the fuck out”, only to welcome me back 20 minutes later as though he hadn’t seen me in a while and missed me. I actually became accustomed to this specific circumstance, as he had firearms hidden everywhere and therefore replacements for those that were confiscated.
An exceptionally cruel disease I know my father is terrified of at this time. Condolences regarding his loss. And don’t be too hard on his wife, she probably just wanted her grandchildren close as I will.