Honoring veterans

I've spoken in the past about my personal Memorial Day memories...and about my goals to teach boys more about the history and purpose of the holiday. And I know that Memorial Day is to honor those who died in service, and I have such respect and gratitude for all of those people. Today, though, I'd like to just share family photos I've found of relatives who have served, even though most of them did not die during active duty. (The first two are the ones I don't know about. The rest I know did not die during active duty.) For about half of them, I only have the pictures and a name or date. I wish I had more of their stories.

First up is this picture that says it's a relative of my mom's mom (James Waterman) after the Civil War:

And, this is a relative of my mom's mom (Chester "Chuck" Robertson) during WWII: 

And my mom's aunt (Edith "Fern" McKie Robertson) during WWII:

(I don't remember exactly when she died, but I know that I met and spent time with Aunt Fern and that my gram loved her sister dearly.)

And this is Nathan's dad's dad (Al Probst) during WWII:

Grandpa Al was able to meet and enjoy all of my boys before he passed in 2009, which makes me happy. He was such a joyful and kind man.

And here's my dad's uncle (Jack Smith) in France during WWII:

And that same uncle a year later:

I never met him, but I've heard stories about my dad's uncle. After my dad's mom died (when my dad was 5), uncle Jack helped my grandpa raise his eight kids.

And this is my mom's older half-brother (Gilbert Duran) in Vietnam:

Again, great respect for all of those men and women of the armed forces who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and for our freedom. Thanks, too, to all who served (including family service members I know I'm probably missing since I don't have pictures). I'll probably share this post again on Veteran's Day but felt these pictures and people deserved to be shared today also.