Veteran’s Day Honor Wall

James Epps

My Veteran is my pops. He served in the Navy from 1961 through 1983 and retired as Chief Petty Officer. As my step-dad, growing up, he was just my dad, I didn\’t really see him as a Soldier. I rarely saw him in uniform, so I don\’t think it sunk in until I was an adult of how cool he actually is! Pops tells us stories of when he was active, of all the places he\’s gotten to travel to because of the Navy with the last place being Iraq. Once Pops retired, he worked for Bell Helicopter as a Mechanical Engineer on the Cobra Helicopter. His nickname at work was Snake Doctor because his coworkers joked that whatever was wrong with the Cobra, he could fix it! Pops was in his sixties and stationed with a Marine unit from New Orleans and went to Iraq twice as a civilian employee of Bell. My son was turning 5 and my dad took leave and flew home for 48 hours because, \”his grandson needed his grandpa to celebrate with him!\” Now-a-days, Pops is almost 80 and is a school crossing guard. He knows each and every one of his \”princes and princesses\” by name and knows when they aren\’t at school. For the past 10 years or so, Pops has been giving out bicentennial half dollars to families with babies, for their baby book. He explains to them that when the coin was minted, in 1976, the Internet wasn\’t a thing, Google didn\’t exist, Smart phones weren\’t a thing, Fast food was barely a thing, color tvs and personal computers were expensive, houses cost about $40 grand, cars cost less than $5 grand, and a coke was about $.50. He talks about how the babies parents were little, and how their families have grown and changed. He also talks about how for the tricentennial, in 2076, how those babies will be grandparents, how their families will grow, how we have no idea where technology will be, and how many changes will happen before then, both for good and bad. He wraps it all into an awesome story that has everyone captive and finishes with \”You know how I know it\’ll happen? Because it happened to me. I\’m just an old Boy Scout, a Grandpa, and a retired Navy Vet wanting to pass on a little love and history.\”