{"id":7109,"date":"2020-10-25T21:49:33","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T21:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/?p=7109"},"modified":"2020-10-25T21:49:33","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T21:49:33","slug":"the-sacrifices-of-our-fathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/the-sacrifices-of-our-fathers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sacrifices of Our Fathers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Note<\/em>: This article by Elaine Hardman was previously published on granitefhc.com and is used with the author’s permission.<\/p>\n

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When I see the American flag, my thoughts turn to my parents, both of whom grew up in the Great Depression and also served in World War II.<\/p>\n

My father served in the Navy on an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific, he was trained as a radioman and a tail gunner. My mother was an occupational therapist with the Army, working with wounded soldiers in an Army hospital in Battle Creek Michigan. My parents didn\u2019t talk much about their experiences in the war, gratefully each left accounts of their service in their personal histories. Theirs was a legacy of faith, service, and love of country.<\/p>\n

One of my mom\u2019s desires was to have the American flag draped over her casket at her funeral. Because she had sold her home after my dad died, and lived with her sister for the last years of her life, her personal history and memorabilia were not in one central location, we were not able to find her service record. When we corresponded with the Veterans Administration in the weeks leading up to mom\u2019s death, we discovered that the service records of thousands who served in the Army , at the end of World War II, (my mom\u2019s included) had been destroyed in a fire, and there was no archive of records to access.<\/p>\n

Eventually a photo copy of mom\u2019s original military service record was found, with her funeral plan file at the mortuary, and we were able to honor her wishes. (this has been a cautionary tale for me in my attempts to organize my personal, and family documents)<\/p>\n

In a post found at Family Search,\u00a0The Greatest Generation: Birth Years, Characteristics, and History, written by Alison Ensign<\/a>, there is great information about the \u201cGreatest Generation\u201d. Here are a few of their character traits that she outlines in this blog article.<\/p>\n