Do you remember all those great songs from the 40s about soldiers being away fighting in Europe or the Pacific and their family being home during the Holidays wishing they were home?  Do you remember those Bob Hope specials when he would fly over with the USO to entertain the troops during the Korean war?   America has been at war since 2002 first in Afghanistan and then Iraq.  Even discounting those, American service men and women have been over seas at various bases since when exactly.  We as a country have allowed ourselves to be distanced from so many things, among them is the lives of our American Service men and woman and their families.  I myself hardly ever thought about it. We may have wrapped yellow ribbons for hostages at times, but never really for our service people.  While this year, one particular Navy seaman will be having his Holidays without us while on a deployment somewhere under the vast Atlantic.  It gives a different meaning to all of those old 40s songs.  Maybe its time to get  some yellow ribbon and find an old oak tree.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2016