A salute to all those who served everywhere
On the subject of all things concerning everyone who has ever served in the military, it is hard to feel anything other than bittersweet on the days immediately following the 20th anniversary observance of 9/11.
We went to the Midwest to visit with our daughter and her family, to celebrate the occasion of her baby’s first birthday. It seemed appropriate to greet new life and fresh joy amid the solemnity and still unfolding grief from the attacks that killed 3,000 and propelled the United States into global war at the dawn of the 21st century.
We hope that our grandchildren will grow up in a world so far beyond the pain and anguish that the 9/11 attacks ushered in worldwide that it will not be occupying space in their view of the world. Is it too much to hope that as the recent arrivals grow, things like the pandemic, and a planet in crisis over changing climate catastrophe will also be in his rearview mirror? We do not know, but we can hope and pray.
In consideration of all the veterans, where did they serve, and when, we know that there are days they mark. Vietnam War era veteran Bob Domin was born about five months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. We lost him a couple months after his 80th birthday. A gentle man who was friend to many that knew him, he was memorialized on Tuesday at the Center for Spiritual Living, and later his life celebrated at VFW Post 3000, according to his family friend, Betty Vaden.
His memorial tribute listed him as 24 years in recovery, and a steadfast member of the Antelope Valley Veterans Community Action Coalition. He was also in periodic appearance at the VA Vet Center in Palmdale, and at the Coffee4Vets gathering Tuesday mornings at Crazy Otto’s on Avenue I.
Bob’s online posts were few, but reflective of his spirit. Here’s one: “When you see something beautiful in someone, tell them. It may take seconds to say, but for them, it could last a lifetime.”
A man of some shyness and reticence, his baseball cap spoke for him, “If you value your freedom, thank a vet.”
Bob was an infant when the attack on Pearl Harbor came on Dec. 7, 1941. Too young for World War II or the Korean War, but old enough to serve in the Vietnam and Cold War eras, old enough to understand the threat of nuclear annihilation, and understand that the ones who served were the ones who stood the watch.
An Antelope Valley veteran friend Lou Moore, still with us, was old enough to volunteer for the Army Air Corps as a flight cadet after Pearl Harbor. A training accident prompted his transfer to the ground forces, and he went on to serve in the European Theater of Operations as America sent its best to destroy Hitler’s reign of terror and end the destruction the Axis powers visited on the world.
Lou’s service was willing, but complicated by his Chinese-American heritage. Before he went in the service, while making a delivery to a war production factory, he was momentarily mistaken as a possible Japanese spy and was staring down the security officer’s guns. He married Nellie Mayeda after he returned from WWII, and about a week after they met. Nellie Mayeda Moore was Japanese-American, and survived the Gila Bend Internment Center, really a prison camp where people of Japanese ancestry were rounded up after Pearl Harbor. No Japanese-American citizen was ever convicted of an act of disloyalty, and many served in the US military with distinction, like Sen. Daniel Inouye who was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Lou chronicled his 74-year love story with Nellie in his book published earlier this year, “Eternal Love,” available on Amazon, and selling briskly.
The bittersweet? At 98, Lou reveres his recently departed Nellie, and longs to be reunited with her. The sweet? His book is a hit in online book sales. The bitter, after his spouse passed on last year, the VA cut off his pension entirely, and tried to dun Army WWII veteran Moore for $170,000 they said he was overpaid.
All of this was nonsense, of course, and owed to bureaucratic errors in sloppy VA record-keeping. It took six months, and tireless efforts by Christine Ward, the veterans case assistant for Rep. Mike Garcia, to untangle it. The core value of any effective lawmaker’s staff is in the work done on behalf of constituents.
The first thing was to settle the matter of the $170,000 “overpayment.” The next mission task was to restore the veteran’s pension, so, that at the age of 98, with his war more than 75 years ago, he could enjoy some peace of mind.
If anyone doubts the quality of service and sacrifice rendered by members of the armed services, they need only look at the Marines and the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers who were on that wall at Kabul, accompanied by Navy and Air Force brothers and sisters who saved 123,000 people.
So, whether 80 years and gone to us, like Bob Domin, or 98 years old and still with us from World War II duty, like Lou Moore, stand easy. You have done your duty, and your rest either here, or beyond, is earned and well deserved. Hand salute.
Dennis Anderson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at High Desert Medical Group. An Army paratrooper veteran, he deployed with local National Guard troops to cover the Iraq War for the Antelope Valley Press. He works on veterans issues and community health initiatives.