15 June 2008

Father’s Day

Posted by Dirk under: musings .

That’s my dad, several years ago in Alaska, having a good time.

My dad is a heckuva guy. He’s one of those guys that most people like when they meet him. And those that don’t like him are usually shit heads. I’m not saying that just cause he’s my dad, but because, by my observations, it’s true. He joined the Army pretty much as soon as he was able, to get out of Bumfuck, Indiana. After his 2 years was up he quit the army and went back to BF, Indiana but quickly decided that the Army was better than working in the iron foundry and joined back up. He spent a total of 22 years in the Army, including 2 years in Vietnam. He was Regular Army (meaning he was there voluntarily unlike many of the guys he served with) and he was in his late 20’s while many of the other guys were barely out of high school. A result of this was that they called him Sergeant Papa.

Before he went to Vietnam though he spent some time stationed at various military bases in West Germany. At one of those a buddy of his was dating a young German lass who had a sister and his buddy set him up with that sister. They started dating. One day the German gal told him she was pregnant. My dad immediately told her he would marry her. (I was that bun in the oven, btw). They’ve been together ever since.

My dad didn’t have a father when he was a kid. My grandfather had been married several time before and was in his 70’s when my dad was born. Despite this lack of a father figure he’s done a heck of a job being a dad. Not only was he my dad (and my sister) but he was always willing to act fatherly to my two cousins that were also mostly without a dad when they were kids.

So anyways, Happy Father’s Day to my Dad and to all the other Dad’s out there. Have a good one!

Leave a Reply

Categories

Links

Archives

Meta