Man, that story really touched my heart, you see, I come from a long line of military men too, every generation of my family have been to war since before Federation, but luckily none of us have ever been killed in battle, although a couple have been wounded in their asses, while "tactically withdrawing".................
We have a family keepsake that has been handed down from generation to generation, and has seen action at some of the most infamous battle scenes in Europe and the Pacific, I don't actually know what it does, but I can see it's been repaired several times over the years, it looks like it was made out of an old shoe box with a round hole about 1.5 inches in diameter at one end, and there looks like the remains of a "feather duster" inside it, and what looks like a small "crank handle" at the other end? I dunno what it does, but I was showing it to the Padre and he suddenly went bright red and stammered about having to get home and left really quick? Geez, I hope he's ok?
My 80 year old father who carried it thru WW2 and Korea burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter and it took me quite a while to calm him down again, it was good to see him laugh as he's been having prostrate problems for years now and has been pretty miserable. He can't speak anymore due to a stroke back in 1984 just after he gave me the "mystery box" as I call it now, he collapsed when I was showing it to Mom, and she kinda went over all weird and took off quicker than the Padre?
Oh well, it's not as interesting as that medal I know, but I'd still love to know what it's for? Cheers, Terry.
