Veterans Day 2020

This blog is endebted to the work of J. Eric Holmes, and today on Veterans Day 2020 I highlight his military service in the US Marine Corp, which included two years in Korea. The above photo is in the J. Eric Holmes Photo Gallery, and originally ran with the biographical sketch accompanying Holmes' first published short story, "Beachhead on the Moon", in Blue Book magazine, February 1951, which mentions that he "joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1948, and has served two summers as a reserve officer candidate at Quantico, Virginia. He expects to receive a second lieutenant's commission in June."

This is a photo of his gravestone at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, (source) and is also in the Photo Gallery. Next to his stone is the one of his father, Wilfred Holmes, who served as a intelligence officer in the Navy during WWII, and who later wrote a book about his work, Double-Edged Secrets (1979).

My father had a version of this poster in his office den for decades

More personally, today I remember my late father, who served as an officer in the Navy, including two years as a Seabee in Vietnam during the war and as a reservist for many years after; his uncle "Fritzi", who was killed during fighting in the Pacific in WWII; my maternal grandfather who served in the Army in the Pacific during WWII; and my late father-in-law who served also served as an officer in the Navy, on a destroyer during the Korean War.

And a big thank you to all of the readers of the blog who have served!

(Modified from earlier posts made in 2012 and 2016).