Here is my Dad, he served in Vietnam. As a kid growing up there was never any real mention of him serving. He kept it to himself. As my sister and I got older my mom would occasionally pull out the projector and the old slides and we would only see the beautiful pictures of Vietnam like the tropical landscapes, the beautiful Buddhas, sacred places of worship and the people who served with him along with some of the Vietnamese people he had befriended. We, of course, would only hear the happy stories.

A few years back, I asked him why he never spoke of his duty in Vietnam. He told me it was not something people respected back then. That the GI’s weren’t treated very well when they returned. That sounded so sad to me.

Now things have changed, we have more respect for our troops. We respect and accept what they had to do for our freedoms.

I never really understood all that he had done until one day when I was out with my parents and my dad was proudly wearing his Vietnam ball cap and a stranger came up to him, a young man with his hand stretched out and said I would like to shake your hand and thank you for your service. This left my father speechless because he feels he’s done nothing incredible to deserve thanks for. I couldn’t quite grasp what was going on and I looked at my mother who explained that this happens every so often, people will thank your father.

I was barely able to contain myself, holding back the tears I went up to my dad and I told him how proud I was of him and how awesome it was that someone recognized him for his service. My father responded, in his humble way, I don’t need thanks however I do appreciate it but these younger soldiers going overseas nowadays have it way worse than I ever did. Mind you he suffers from ailments caused from being in Vietnam. He has so much respect and a better understanding of what our military men and women go through then I can ever understand.

So even though my husband and I have never served ourselves, we have a great admiration for our servicemen.

We feel very fortunate to be Americans.

All the best,
Lynne Ingalls, Owner