I’m not a veteran, though my good friend (and co-blogger over at And Still I Persist) Bruce Henderson is. But my mother (the genealogist) sent me a list of veterans in our family. Here’s the list (with a few additions of my own) in rough reverse chronological order:

• Jon A. Webster, USMC (active) — currently at Camp Pendleton, awaiting deployment to Iraq [son]
• Heather Harris, US Army National Guard (former) — [daughter]
• Greg Barsic, USMC (former), USCG (active) — currently serving in the US Coast Guard [son-in-law]
• Frank Wallace, USMC (former) — [married to my niece]
• Brad Poeltler, USN (ret.) — Navy pilot who served as an instructor at ‘Top Gun’ [brother-in-law]
• Robert Wendt, USN (ret.) — also former Navy pilot [former brother-in-law]
• Bill Lowell, US Army (former) — [former brother-in-law]
• John A. Webster, USN (ret., dec.) — served in both WW II and Vietnam [my father]
• James Francis Webster, USN (dec.) — served in WW II [my paternal grandfather]
• John Silas Fickes, CSM, USN (dec.) — served in WW I, Mexican Revolution, and WW II [my maternal grandfather]
• John William Fickes, 1st Sgt., Co. A, PA Militia, 8th Reg. Infantry — served in Spanish-American War [great-grandfather]
• James Edward Taylor, Pvt. Co. D, II PA Volunteer Infantry — served in Civil War [great-great grandfather]

God bless them all, and God bless America. ..bruce..