Printed Memories

The Eisenhower Battle group deployed to the Middle East. A submarine is leaving this week for Europe. It’s a common cycle here in Norfolk, VA, the home of the largest naval port in the world. Ships and subs are constantly coming in and out. If we aren’t waving goodbye, we are welcoming them home.

I cry with the families when the military personnel leave and I rejoice when they come home. I proudly display my flag on my house and I leave a light in the window to let people know I remember the soldiers fighting on foreign soil for freedom.

It’s my life as an Army Brat that helped create the love of America that pumps through my veins. It was my father’s career in the Army that showed me all the Armed Forces do for this county. It was his photos that helped me see what he did.

My dad used to break out the projector and show slide shows of vacations and other family adventures, but the best pictures were from Vietnam. He didn’t show those often, and by the time I was a teenager, the pictures were confined to albums contained in boxes in the basement.

One year our basement flooded and ruined a majority of the albums, and the photos inside. I remember my dad scavenging trying to save the pictures, but it was too late, they were soaked. We peeled them apart trying to dry them, laying them out on tables, chairs and the floor. The age of the photos combined with the water was too much and he lost a lot of those printed memories.

Maybe that’s one reason I occasionally search photos of military families, pictures of the Vietnam war or any photo essay that truly displays the life of a solider or a sailor.

My local newspaper routinely does photo essays. The latest is While You Were Away, that shows families dealing with the stress of living with a deployed mother, father, son or daughter.

However, I really enjoy a true homegrown solider’s story. Something one person managed to snap while in the jungle or the dessert. Then, carry that film all the way across the world and get it developed so I can look at the photos. I’m not the only one who searches this. Check out this Flickr site with more than 93,000 views of Vietnam photos.

While some of the photos I find are disturbing, how can I click to close? My dad had to look at it while he was at war. I want to see it because I want to know what he sacrificed for me – for America.

The Denver Post did a great Vietnam war 35th anniversary photo essay that I have looked through several times. The photos are hard to view, so beware before you click.

Maybe being a photographer in the Armed Forces would be a great career for you. Check out your options at Nexxt, realestatejobsite.com and educationjobsite.com.

By: Staci Dennis