Today is Memorial Day.  While yes, we had a barbeque with friends, it's important to remember why we actually memorialize this day.

I have a horrible memory, so this year I wanted to have written down some information about our relatives and their service for our country.  I have great pride in my family and great pride in my country and saying "thank you" just doesn't seem like enough.  These are a few stories of some of our family.

I asked my Grandma Darlene about my Grandpa, Frank Studley's, time in the service and this was her response:
 "Frank was in the Air Force from 1950 until 1955.  He was stationed in Newfoundland and Greenland before I met him.  He drove a fire truck and went to crashed plane sights.  I met him in March 1953 - he was stationed in Wichita and they detached 17 men to the old Pratt air base as they were using the runways for touch and go landings and needed a fire crew in case of an accident.  Thank God there were no bad accidents there, but in Greenland he said there were and he helped pull men (some bodies too) out of the crashes."

"He and two other flyboys rented my folks apartment at 702 So Jackson in Pratt.  I was signing up to go to Colorado Business College that day - I did go to Denver and graduated the following spring and we were married in August 1954."

"Your Great Grandpa, Henry Hoeme, was in the First World War and was badly injured.  There is a purple heart engraved on his tombstone at Natrona.  The purple heart award was given after he died.  His left thigh was shot to bits - he layed on the battle field for over 36 hours and about bled to death.  He never would talk about it, but the day he died in Salina, I could tell he was reliving it."

My Grandpa, Jim Dixson, served in World War II.  He graduated High School in 1944 and went to boot camp the day after graduation.  He served in the Air Transport Command in the Philippines, but was also in Hawaii and Guam.  He was an airplane mechanic and while in the Philippines, the Japanese started shooting at them and they ran to the plane to get out of there and his hand got shut in the door of the airplane.  He held it over a 5 gallon bucket to catch the blood.  He had a big scar on the palm of his hand.  There is a military marker at his grave site at Stevens Chapel.

Clint's great uncle, Warren Lee Petty, also served in WWII.  He had volunteered as a night-time "runner-messenger" trying to unite scattered allied forces during the Battle of the Bulge.  He stepped on a land mine and was killed in action on December 16, 1944 near Belgium Border, Germany.

My uncle, Tony Haffner, served in the Army.  In April 1970 when he was 17, he skipped school and went to the Courthouse to enlist in the Army.  He told his parents about it that night.  He graduated High School on May 19, turned 18 on May 22, and went into the Army on May 25.  He went to basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, Artillery School at Fort Sill, OK, and Parachute Training at For Benning, GA.  He was then assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division in October 1970 as a paratrooper and served in C Battery 1st Battalion Airborne 319th Field Artillery until June 12, 1973, when he left the Army as a Sergeant.

All I can say is THANK YOU.