Veterans
Siblings honor their father’s military service.
While growing up, I lived in a home with my five siblings and parents, Wilma and George Keenan. Dad was always telling us stories about his childhood in Cameron and about working on gas drilling rigs all over northern and central West Virginia. He also mentioned that he had served as a private in the U.S. Army during World War II. I didn’t know a lot about his service, but I did know he was a great dad.
Dad liked to tell us how he and Mom got together. While working on the gas wells, he was a boarder at our grandparents’ house. Dad said our Papaw promised to give him a cow if he would marry his daughter. Then Dad would laugh, telling us, “I married your mother, but I never did get the cow.”
As the years went by, he began driving a log truck. After working all day, he would come home and do odd jobs around the house. Dad didn’t have a college education; he learned and taught through handson experience.
On April 1, 1969, our house caught fire and burned completely. We lost everything, including all the records on Dad’s military service. He received a little money from neighborly donations, some of which he used to purchase each of us kids a new transistor radio. He could have used that money for anything, but Dad knew we were upset after the fire and wanted to give us something to help us cope.
As we grew, Dad let us help plant the garden and harvest the crops. Later, he helped my brothers with their cars and took them hunting. He was teaching all of us life skills to prepare for the future.
In 2005, my dad passed away. When Mom died in 2013, my brother Mike inherited all their legal documents. Although we searched, we couldn’t find any information about Dad’s military service. We wanted to honor him with a military grave marker. I had so many questions, and the military personnel were nice and helpful. So we persevered.
Finally, in August 2015, Dad’s military grave marker arrived. It brought tears to my eyes. Mike and his family joined my husband, Larry, and me at the cemetery to place the marker. Ten years after Dad’s death, he finally got the recognition he deserved. We’re so proud and grateful.