Decoration Day Blues

 

Today we have another Decoration Day, or as it is now known, Memorial Day.  All the places I normally go are closed today for the holiday, so not much to do except write to this blog.  So I listened to Howlin' Wolf sing about Decoration Day, and skipped the local parade (from what I heard, they started late anyway).  In the past I have written about my connection to the holiday through the blues, and through having lived in Carbondale, but I have other connections to the military, though somewhat indirect.  I have never served in any branch of the military, though like all males my age I was heavily recruited.  (used to get a weekly call from Sgt. King of the army, who was always disappointed that I planned to go to college, and I did talk to the Navy guy about nuclear training before deciding not to go that way, and like all males my age, I registered with selective service, but there was no draft in the years I would have been eligible)  I did have two roommates who were ROTC, at least one of whom did a tour in the army during the Gulf War and had enough of army life, and a few more housemates who did ROTC (their big highlight was coming home from maneuvers and eating all the MRE's that they didn't consume in the field) but I was never a part of that either.  

What I did have was some college students who were veterans and reservists, with mixed results.  Some actually wondered if I was former military myself (don't know if this was good or bad, but I guess something about my bearing suggested this) but as written earlier, I wasn't.   Students who were veterans were taking classes I taught on their GI Bill I guess, and as said earlier were mixed results.  Some were great students, and some were terrible students who caused a lot of problems, but thanks to that guaranteed  funding, got more chances that I would have given them.  But that was in grad school.  By the time I had become an adjunct professor, I was mostly dealing with reservists.  These were students who had joined the National Guard or were Army reservists and were taking advantage of the educational benefits that came with that, but had their units called up to active service, and not at times convenient to their college education.   They would have to leave my classroom, and head off to tours of duty, mostly in the Middle East or Afghanistan, and there was not much I could do about it but wish them good luck and give them an Incomplete for the semester, and hope they would come back in time to finish the class.  (there is a time limit on incomplete grades, after which they shift to F automatically) 

The only student I ever had who came back to finish is incomplete after serving a tour in the army (in Jordan I think) was someone in that classroom seen above.  A good student in my 2D class that I had in that print room, and who had done much of the work for that class before he had to go.  I accepted his reason for why he couldn't complete the semester as scheduled (I always did for people who were called up to serve), but he was the only one who ever came back to finish the class.  Being a good student, I was glad he did.  He brought in the missed work and I filled out the form to change his Incomplete to an A.  But he was the only one.  I had an incomplete for a student who was in a vehicular accident who made up his incomplete, but the rest who were called up, either didn't make it home, or didn't care about the class.  

So on Memorial Day, I don't have to think about any family or friends who died in defense of this country, but I do think about my students and hope that those I never saw again decided to go another route, but made it home alive.