In 1975, I was stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk. My friend “Toast” was a short-timer and couldn’t wait to be discharged and get back to Wisconsin. Toast played the guitar (sort of) and dreamed of buying an electric guitar, a pig-nose amp, and playing “I’m Free” by The Who as he marched down the gangplank on the day of his discharge. All of us sailors thought it was a fantastic idea.
Yesterday I heard a radio station play “I’m Free” as a tribute to Veterans. I’ve heard the song before and remembered Toast. But yesterday it caught me off guard. Back in ’75 we thought of the song and Toast’s crazy dream in terms of our personal freedom, freedom from the man, the Navy. The military and service people were hated after Viet Nam. Heck, we didn’t even appreciate ourselves. Few of us thought of freedom as something we provided for our friends, family, and country through our service. But we did. Thanks, fellow Vets. I appreciate you and freedom better now.
Editors note: I posted this on my Facebook page and received such a strong response I thought I might share it with you all as well.
Hi, Eugene!,… God Bless You and your family, and thank you for doing so!,… (both for your service & for posting this!),… nice to hear from you!
Hi, Georgie. Good to hear from you. At least in my not blogging you are still reading. Good to hear from you.
don’t know where the comments are going,… don’t see any,…
Right here. Things have changed in the blogging world and I no longer know how to operate my site. I’ll re-learn.
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