land of the free home of the brave charity

Here is a portion of the lyrics, “Day is done, gone the sun, from the lake, from the hill, from the sky. The 24-note melancholy bugle call known as “Taps” is played at military funerals and memorial services to accompany the lowering of the flag and to signal the lights out command at day’s end. Her mother ran through the house wailing and screaming, “No God, please no.”Įveryone was devastated as her mother went to bed and stayed there for weeks. My mom recalls the terrible day when military representatives knocked on their door and told her mother that they were sorry to inform her that her son had been killed. He would also buy his mother flowers every week and she would set them on the kitchen table. She remembers that he would give her ten cents every Saturday to buy some candy, which she looked forward to. His nickname was Kenny and after he graduated High School, he worked a little part-time job before he was drafted.

My mom was very close to her brother who died in Korea. I vaguely remember two of these uncles and now realize they both suffered terribly from PTSD. The father was in World War I, his oldest son, was in Japan during WWII, the second son was killed in Korea in 1950, and the youngest son served in the Vietnam era. However, I thought it was even more unique how my grandfather and each of my uncles served in a different war. Like many families, all three sons eventually enlisted into the military. They had seven children, three boys, and four girls, and my mother was the baby. He was injured in the war and according to my mother he was never the same.

My maternal grandfather Alvin fought in WWI and was in France. Neither my father nor my grandfather served but on my mother’s side of the family, it’s quite a different story. He is now a police officer at a Veterans Hospital.

Land of the free home of the brave charity