Veteran's day

We're well into Fall now here in the Ozarks.  The leaves are turning and falling down in great piles.  Hickory nuts, walnuts and acorns litter the ground.  With all the trees in our yard, walking is a bit hazardous!  Those hickory nuts just roll under your feet!  I've come close to falling on my kister several times...  The dogs think it's pretty funny!

Today is Veteran's Day.  It always seems like a sad day, to me.  Memorializing all those dead... And there are a lot of dead military people to remember.  And many living.  Being a Veteran, and having been raised in a military family,  I'm very aware of the sacrifice many have paid to our country.

When I was a young child, my father took me to a memorial in Wilkes-Barre, PA.  It names each person who died in the Wyoming Massacre.  One of those people was my ancestor Elisha Richards.  Wow!  I have a Revolutionary War ancestor.  Very cool.

My grandmother, Virginia Wyans Cragle is a descendant of Elisha.  She passed away in an automobile accident when my dad was 3.  So I never had a chance to meet her.  But I met her brother Paul, who ran a little museum in his house.  Again, very cool.  I always enjoyed going to visit him.

Family history has it that the Cragle family are descendants of a Hessian who served King George and was surprised when Washington et all crossed the Delaware.  Since that was a disgrace for the Hessian's, they remained in Pennsylvania.  This same history was found in a book my younger sister found while doing a report in high-school.  I haven't read that particular book, so I'm not sure of the title.  I guess some research with the Osterhout Library in Wilkes-Barre would reveal it though.  Ousterhout Free Library

I also grew up knowing that one of my Cragle ancestors served in the Civil War.  And one in WWI.  Several of my uncles served in WWII.  My father served in Korea, Viet Nam (3 times), and was in Guantanamo Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I have several other family members who served in Viet Nam.  I was in the Navy during Desert Storm.  I wasn't deployed, but many of my coworkers were.  Our friends Kevin Stout and Jim Saxe were.  And, we have several friends' children and 1 cousin who are still in the military and serving in the Middle East.

When I started working on my family tree through Ancestry.com, I discovered I have wartime ancestors on all sides of my family, in all our wars.  From the French and Indian war, up to the current conflicts.  We're a military family.  That's just how it's done. 

I've been to Gettysburg 3 times.  Every time I'm there it wigs me out.  I guess I've seen too many of those pictures with the dead horses and dead men lying everywhere.  Knowing that creek was so full of blood it clotted!  And when I went there, I could see it very clearly.  Back to the bus for me!  I could do without THAT image being burnt into my brain.

I know a lot of people don't understand American History.  They don't understand the conflicts our military have been involved in.  Or what it's like to be in the military.  I found that Naval service had some benefits, and some drawbacks.  I learned a lot.  I met a lot of good people.  And some not so good.  I was able to go to college on the GI bill.  I was able to buy my first home with a VA guaranteed loan.  I met my first husband, Curtis Brown, while I was stationed in Newport, RI.  He was also from a military family.  We were married for 25 years.

But, Veteran's day always makes me sad.  So many dead people.  All those war movies on TV.  Most of them glorify war.  Watch Saving Private Ryan or Bat 21, or watch this Youtube video listing the top 5 recent war movies to see what war is really like.  Best Modern War Movies.  Personally, I can't watch Black Hawk Down.  It's too real.