Welcome Home!
Picture by Shannon
The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
I knew what happened this past weekend would have to be the topic of our next blog, but before we start relating what happened we want to spend a few moments as to what led up to my coming home.
In 1964 I was in Vietnam as we have talked about in prior blogs and later in that decade some of the public decided to rally against the war by calling the troops in Vietnam “Baby killers,” and spitting on them when they returned home, which was why they wore their “Civies” when they returned home.
If you know me I am either all in or all out no middle ground. Having served in the Navy and loving the men I served with, I, yes I, was deeply offended by what was happening, and those words don’t even come close to the anger I felt.
For sixty years I carried that anger inside of me!
Four years ago John, our youngest son, gave me for my birthday a NAVY hat which I didn’t wear for a year. When I did put it on people thanked me for my service, and I have never taken it off since, and I started to mellow or so I thought.
We will be brief because we talked about this in a blog two weeks ago. At Gail’s Dr’s office I met a man who saw my Navy hat and asked me if I had gone on an Honor flight. I hadn’t, and the Holy Spirit, yes the Holy Spirit, encouraged me to apply. I did, and the next day received an email from Angela telling me someone had cancelled and would I like to go?
Wow!!! God working in my life.
I said, “No,” because I had already asked four other friends to join me. Gail said ,”Yes”, and I went with Dave, our Middle son and he was my Guardian, and he did a ”Fantastic” job.
We will not describe all that happened because I don’t want to spoil it for any who haven’t gone and will maybe consider applying after reading this blog ASAP.
Saturday we visited the Memorials, and I told Dave as we mentioned in our prior Blog, I wanted to go to the Vietnam Memorial and get an etching of William C Murphy, a Stonehill classmate who was killed on October 5, 1965.
After going through the Korean Memorial, we went to the Vietnam wall to get our etching. We arrived at the Wall, and there was a large group of people, from our group, surrounding the part of the wall we wanted the etching from. A man with a stepladder was doing an etching further up the wall with the ladder blocking Bill’s name.
I found an older man who was doing etchings, and he agreed to do William C. Murphy.
He did an awful job, his lines were too far apart and you could barely make out the name. I thanked him and left heartbroken. Dave noticed this and after we had walked a while asked me how I felt and I told Dave I wasn’t happy. Dave said, “Let’s go back and get it done right.” I agreed and was happy Dave had noticed my sadness and said let’s go back.
When we arrived back at the wall, No one was there at our spot, Dave found William’s name and told me to stand there and he would get someone to do the etching.
I did.
And
Unbeknownst to me Shannon from Mission BBQ (which location is unknown) saw me and was moved to take my picture and then add to it.
Because all of the Maine Guardians wore light blue tee shirts she picked out Laurie in our group and asked her if she knew me? Laurie said, “Yes.” because she was on our bus, and agreed to send me the picture with the text.
Shannon used some program to really make the picture stand out.
Her text said: Hello. My name is Shannon. I’m the Regional Community Ambassador for the MISSION BBQ and was shooting pictures for the Honor Flight Philadelphia today when I met you at the wall. One of your Veterans just stole my heart as I saw him standing there patiently waiting for a name to be etched and I took a photo of him.
I thanked him for his service, and could clearly tell the wall affected him. Could you please share this with him and Thank you for what you do too!
Shannon added in at the base of the wall the Roses, Boots, Flag and Helmet, at the top an Eagle, American Flag, and the Washington Monument.
Our last stop was the Navy Memorial and that’s when Laurie received the picture, and text, which she forwarded to Dave, and Dave showed me the next morning.
I was, and still am moved to tears!
Throughout this weekend the tears were being forced back, but when Dave showed me the picture I really had to work hard to prevent myself from crying, the Anger was that bad.
When we flew home on Sunday the Portland Fire Department had two fire trucks out to spray water over our airplane to welcome us back.
When we walked into the Terminal we were greeted by a large group who held signs and said “WELCOME HOME!” I really almost lost it, and if it wasn’t for Sharon in our group I would have, and as I am typing this I am losing it, but now the tears are welcome for the cleansing they are starting to give me.
Monday I went to Mass, and the Holy Spirit told me to go to confession and confess the anger which had been buried for sixty years, which I did, and Fr. Evans forgave my sins in the name of Jesus, and I came out feeling a deep Peace.
And
Because of the Deep Peace I felt The Holy Spirit was saying, ”Welcome Home!”
We are telling this story to illustrate how God is always working in our lives, and events that may seem trivial, a Navy Hat – going with Gail to her doctors – a botched job, to mention three, and I could identify many more for this picture, at the time could be very important in the future , and the Joy is linking these events to prove to yourself that God is truly working in your life, and only wants the best for you.
Note: I never want my name linked to this picture. I pray it will represent all of the service men who have known someone who died in Vietnam, and the grief they have experienced because of their loss, and the anger they may have for the lousy way they were greeted when they returned home.
The two etchings.
The Cleansing will take time, but we have started, and the first step is always the most important step.
Thank you Father!
– -If you are a Veteran or know a Veteran Please share—–
Honor Flight Maine
Objective: Anyone who has been in any branch of the military qualifies for Honor Flight whether they saw combat or not. Staying stateside is fine also. As you know, you go where you’re told to go.
Who’s eligible: We currently are only allowing people who served in the Vietnam era and earlier because those people have memorials already.
With the unveiling of the new Gulf War memorial later this fall, we think we will be informed by National Honor Flight that we can take younger veterans.
We tend to select by age and health meaning we try to take our oldest first but we will take younger veterans who are terminally ill.
How to apply for an Honor Flight:
(If you’re in a different state type in the state name.)
And,
If you are also moved to volunteer or want to make a contribution, we are doing both, go to www.honorflightmaine.org
———————————————————————-
Picture:
Welcome Home Photograph by Shannon
Please keep Snapping!
And if you want the ten calling cards shown above, email me and I will send you my address, send me a STAMPED self-addressed envelope and I will send you ten cards.
The offer for the cards is sadly for American readers only. The Post office won’t accept foreign stamps.
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed.
Send an email to: fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
Disclaimer:
We decided to share with you that I do use Google AI for spelling, punctuation, and helping me find a Bible verse. BUT we go to the Bible to print out the verse we find. If we do use Google AI it will be noted. I believe in a while this type of disclaimer will be needed on all created works.
