My heritage of veterans in three countries

Do you have favorite veterans in your family, in your life?
I started out to write simply about my two favorite veterans, but the more I thought, and looked at photos and memories, the harder and more emotional it became. 
I come from a long heritage of veterans from three countries. 

My favorite veteran, M/Sgt. Vance Clark, USAF

Two years ago I sat in the Albuquerque airport, sketching the Manzano mountains, a day after burying my favorite uncle and one of my favorite veterans, Mike, in the Santa Fe National Cemetery. Search this blog for veterans or Mike, and you'll find numerous posts over the past few years.
But he's not my favorite of course. First-born son, M/Sgt. Vance C. Clark, USAF, holds that rank. There's no way I can put in words how proud I am of him, of his patriotism and loyalty.

And I have known many veterans as other relatives and friends in my life, including many former students. If I try to list them all, I'll leave some out, but they have been blessings to me, not necessarily for their service, but for just who they are. But some have to be mentioned, and every time I think of one, another name comes up. 
Stop and think about how entwined veterans lives are with this country, with our lives. I won't use the overused word "hero" to describe them, because most would decline the term. But it is appropriate to honor them today and tomorrow for what they mean to all of us, in so many ways.

Cdr. Steve Curry, USN

I'd have to add Col. Charles Fleming, USMC, who was a colleague at OSU, and helped me earn my doctoral degree. He's since paid the price for Agent Orange, but I so remember having to celebrate the Marines birthday every year. 
I've been blessed with many former students who were veterans. They are more mature and focused on their studies that most students. They don't gloat nor wave the flag, and in fact, if the enrollment sheet didn't specify "veteran," you wouldn't know it in most cases.
 Near the top would be Commander Steve Curry, US Navy, a former student who has remained a good friend, and two years ago booked me on the USS Abe Lincoln for a Tiger Cruise. More recently there has been Andy Jensen, who shares Ray Bradbury and a love of reading and writing. There have been many more. 

Petty Officer 2 Mike Clark, Grandmother, Dad

Uncle Mike was my Dad's favorite brother, hence my middle name.  But two other brothers served, Rex and Champ in the US Army. Dad didn't serve of course, having lost his leg jumping a freight train in 1932, but he spent much of his life drawing portraits of veterans.
I know from genealogy work from Vance, Dad, and my aunt Vera "Sissie" Culp that my ancestors served in The Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War and Spanish American War. Not sure of WWI.

CSA grave, Vicksburg

And I can't conclude without honoring those ancestors of mine who served in two other countries, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States of America.
They're in my blood.
It's little wonder that I am drawn to the POW/MIA flags, and to the veterans' gravestones in cemeteries, or my affection for wandering down the ranks of graves in national cemeteries, whether at Santa Fe, Arlington, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Fort Smith, and elsewhere.
Join me and snap a salute to your veterans, past, present, and for the future.

First day of school duty

Final port of call, Santa Fe

Eternal duty, Vicksburg National Cemetery

Veterans' Day stories

The last march...National Cemetery at Santa Fe across from Uncle Mike's home, where he will one day be buried with other veterans.

I can get lost in cemeteries, especially National Cemeteries. Time seems frozen there, and on holidays flags adorn the graves. My imagination flows from the names etched on the headstones, wondering about the stories that will never be told, about the lives cut short, about the loved ones left behind.

The headstones march in perfect military precision over the hills and lawns, white against green, infinite patterns of life and death.

Most of the headstones are identical, though older ones disrupt complete uniformity.

Grave of a WWI veteran at Santa Fe--a wounded soldier leaning against a tree with a rose in his hand.

I think my favorites are Vicksburg and Gettysburg. But Arlington is unique. Fort Smith is also old and inspiring. And I’ve viewed Santa Fe many times.

Arlington, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Arlington, Audie Murphy, the most decorated veteran.

But there are other national cemeteries that choke me up too…that nation no longer exists, but its veterans are buried also at Vicksburg and in places like Manassas across a dozen states. Those veterans are excluded from the U.S. Cemeteries, though they fought in America too. Their graveyards are not as neat or prosperous or impressive, and a different flag decorates them.

At Vicksburg, you have to hunt to find the Soldier’s Rest cemetery on a shabby side of town where more than 1,600 Americans are buried who died fighting there. Nearby is the impressive National Cemetery, in the National Park where the earthworks of death are now covered with grass. More than 17,000 Union soldiers lie there, and about 12,000 are unknown.

 At Manassas, just a few miles south of Arlington is an acre of grass with an iron gate that says “Confederate Cemetery.” Inside, most of the graves unmarked and some unknown, lie 250 American veterans killed in battle and a single monument.

But I’m also moved every time I visit a cemetery in Oklahoma, and find graves of Confederate veterans who survived the war.

Usually there are no flags on holidays on their graves. I wonder what it was like to have fought and lost and then to spend the rest of your days living with the victors, under their flag?  What was it like, growing old, and remembering the days when you were young and barefoot, wearing butternut and gray, marching and hoping, charging to the shrill eerie cry of the Rebel Yell, and then losing, folding the flag even defiantly, walking home, and trying to rebuild a life?

 Confederate veterans graves at Purcell.

Usually their headstones list their names and their unit, and the dates of their lives. I found some most recently at Purcell and Johnsonville on Memorial Day. At Johnsonville, the old cemetery is tended by a disabled Vietnam vet. He can’t get Confederate flags, but he places an American flag on the graves of all veterans in the cemetery, including the Confederate soldier’s.

That’s a salute, from one veteran to another. I add mine to all veterans today.