Dad

my dad has always been one of my heroes. i never really went through one of those rebellious phases and we never duked it out in the front yard when i was in my teens because i was feeling froggy. i was a little self-righteous in my early 20s and wanted to be outspoken to people at work or chafed at the submission required during my early years in the army. i’d get a little disappointed with him then when he’d tell me to suck it up and take it, but that’s about the closest thing to strife between us that existed. there were plenty of times i disappointed him over the years with some of my self destructive tendencies but he was always one of the people i looked up to.

that actually played a part in my joining the military. i figured if my dad was such a great guy, and i wanted to be like him, that i should try to do some of the things he did. he didn’t talk about his vietnam experiences much, but he did talk about other aspects of his time in the navy, and when he did so, he did so fondly and it sounded like it had an impact on him. so originally i tried to join the navy. life happened and i ended up going army instead.

dad’s kind of a quiet, subtle guy. very modest, very dry sense of humor. growing up i can remember us having parties and church functions at our house, and us attending things at others, but as he’s gotten older, him and mom have become a little more introverted. i’m not sure what’s driven that, but it’s kind of shocking now to see him in a social environment because he’s very engaging and people WANT to like him. a couple weekends ago i was very excited to have him and my army friends meet in washington and it was a great thing. they loved him. one of the guys and i were talking after the weekend and he was raving about how great my dad was. apparently my dad took him aside and gave him some advice about something and he was blown away by it.

it was fun watching him with the guys. he really came out of his shell and talked more about his military service at one time than i’d ever heard before. took part in the “who’s suck was worst” stories and laughed and joked and really showed pride in who he was, where he’d been and what he’d seen. terrible how much so many of the vietnam era vets hide and downplay that service still and it stuck with me over the last couple weeks.

then a friend sent me a link to a great site. www.rangerup.com. and when i was looking at it, i found the shirt that’s pictured above. i was absolutely positive that my dad would never wear it, but said screw it, i love it, i love him, i’m sending it anyways. it showed up yesterday and he called. “sean, did you send me a shirt? this cool shirt showed up today and i’m trying to figure out who sent it.” (really dad? really, you had to think about that?). i was shocked. i told him that i sent it and was worried he wasn’t going to wear it and he said he’d already decided to wear it to work on veteran’s day. and i don’t think his office is a tee-shirt type place! so i’m just tickled. i sent him the narrative from the website last night, because i like it so much:

This shirt proudly shows VETERAN over the front left breast of the shirt (we said breast…heh, heh…) with the back stating “Freedom isn’t Free. I paid for it.”

This shirt meets two awesome intents. One – We at Ranger Up firmly believe that every sailor, airman, coast guardsman, marine and soldier owns a piece of this country, paid for in his or her blood, sweat, tears, and time away from family and friends. We think this shirt celebrates that.

Two – this shirt will aggravate the crap out of the people we hate. “Who do they think they are? Like he really paid for anything. All he did was propogate unbridled American aggression for oil…blah blah blah” We love it when these people are unhappy and this shirt will drive em nuts!

Enjoy!

dad’s response?

I love it.

Thanks

Dad

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