02 March 2009

Monday Memories - Uncle Roy & Vietnam

Last monday I helped plan a going away party for my friend, Ashley, who's an Alabama National Guard Sergeant who's being deployed to Afghanistan. It reminded me of some photos of my Uncle Roy's welcome home party when he returned from Vietnam.



albea86

I asked mom about these photos and the party.




Uh, Roy served in the Vietnam War. He joined the army with, um, my cousin Bobby and Gary Anderson from up the... Anderson? Yeah - from up the street. And, uh, the three of 'em enlisted together and went through boot camp together, but then they got split up.

Uh, and your Uncle Roy went to Vietnam and was over there. And while he was over there, of course it was hard on Mama and Daddy. I think I told you before about the map that Grandaddy had up in the living room. And when he'd watch the news at night he'd put the little push pins on the map where the bombing would go on. And he'd have a different color push pin for where Roy was supposed to be.

So, um, we were looking through the pictures and I was tellin' Valerie - I was tellin' you - about the - when he came home we had a welcome home party. And we had it out on the carport, out on your Grandmama's house. So we've got some pictures of it. And uh, Mama had cooked - baked cupcakes and she put the little flags on there. And she had a cake and we had punch and just, you know, stuff and just welcomed him home. We had balloons and streamers up and, uh, we'd made a big banner to put across the front of the carport when he came home, so it'd say "welcome home roy" so that he'd see that when he came home.

And uh, all the - all the families in the neighborhood came down and - and uh, my Aunt Ree and Uncle Bill, my Grandmama was there and all of us kids. And we were just really happy that Roy was home safe and sound and uh, home from Vietnam.

And then after he was in Vietnam he went and served a year in Germany. And then from Germany he came back home. So, it was - it was a hard time for the family and we were just glad that he was home. He was just so young and uh, he made it home safe.

No comments:

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails