What Could Be Better?

What could be better than a day in the company of one's son?  The company of two sons, of course!  It turned out that Pete had invited Dave, also a bachelor, to share a meal.  Pete outdid himself on the barbecue with steak, baked potatoes with rosemary, and grilled peaches.  And I sat there like Lady Astor's horse and didn't have to lift a finger!  We talked and laughed together all afternoon.

In the morning, I had watched a number of touching ceremonies in various military cemeteries across the nation.  During the Vietnam War, I, like so many others, wore a bracelet engraved with the name of a POW/MIA victim.  I wore the bracelet until it broke in two, but I knew nothing about the man and never learned the end of the story.  There was not the research capability then that the internet provides now.  I've never forgotten the name on my bracelet and on the off chance I might find something, I keyed in William J. Brashear.  And there it was.  William Brashear was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force whose two-man fighter jet was shot down in a jungle in Laos in 1969.  To this day he remains MIA, but he is not forgotten.  Major Brashear was from Chula Vista, California.

It was a most memorable Memorial Day, and what could be a better ending than a sunset like this?