Military Service

A Family Tradition

I listened to my brothers talk
as they discussed their experiences
on aircraft carriers
during the Gulf War.

One
aviation ordnance
and the other aviation electronics.

I smiled
remembering father,
who served in the Army Air Corps
in World War II,
and Uncle Roy the Doughboy,
who fought in the trenches
in World War I.

It is a family tradition,
to join a branch of the military
in wartime.