When you grow up in a home with an Army veteran, you learn to appreciate certain things. You get a perspective that other kids may not get. My dad, a Vietnam veteran, was a warrant officer. He flew helicopters in and out of Lai-Khe base camp, taking ground troops to their ordered destinations and back again.

My old man didn’t talk of his Vietnam experiences very often. When I did pick up tidbits of information, he was usually talking with his friends or other veterans. Maybe I was too young to understand or maybe, for whatever reason, Dad had memories that he didn’t want to share with me. Both reasons are perfectly valid. When he and I did talk about Vietnam though, his stories weren’t pretty.

One time he said that it was in Vietnam where he learned to sleep with one eye open. I said, “How do you do that?”

Dad put it simply, “You learn to. You never knew when a Vietnamese kid was gonna be standing over you with a gun or grenade.”

I’m sure that Kendall DeMaranville saw a lot more than he was ever willing to share. Most of it he probably tried to forget and some it always stuck with him.

Veterans Day is this Thursday. Thank a veteran. A neighbor, a friend, a relative. They have given so much so we don’t have to.

Dalcon DeMaranville
Geneseo Current