On Memorial Day I'd like to spend some time celebrating a few generations of service in my family.
My great-great great grandfather Keen served under Old Fuss and Feathers Winfield Scott during the Indian Wars. General Scott was later the Secretary of War at the beginning of the Civil War.
My great great grandfather Winfield Scott Keen was a drummer boy in the Civil War. Taken prisoner toward the end of the war he spent several months in Andersonville Prison before returning home to finish school, marry, move to California in a covered wagon and have a family.
Great Grandfather Joseph Burke didn't have a war to serve in and instead served as the sole assemblyman from Orange County around 1913. It was a time of strawberries and orange groves in Orange County and very few people.
My grandfather, Russell Burke was a sailor in World War I. Luckily for him he never made it out of San Diego. He lived to watch the Dodgers and play golf and had his first hole in one at the age of 80.
My dad, Gene Clarke, passed away last month at 87. He was a proud member of the Naval Air Force and was a gunner in VPB 146, he's on the far right. He rarely spoke about it until after his retirement and Baa Baa Black Sheep re-runs were on TV in the 80's. The aviators from TV and my dad's squadron were in the same theater and he began to tell some of the stories of his days on the real islands in the South Pacific rather than the fake ones in the Channel Islands! It took 52 years and an act of Congress and they were finally given their air medals aboard the USS Kitty Hawk by Vice-Admiral Bennitt.
To the hero's in my family, I salute all of you!!! Thank you for your service in creating this country, preserving our country and bringing peace to the world.
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