Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died serving our country. Although I have never served personally, I currently have two sons serving in the Marines. And as it turns out, most of my very best friends have served in a branch of the military.
One person that I especially think about every year on this day, Bob Leamer, passed a few years ago. I initially met Bob through Skip Nichols, another friend of mine who served as a Marine in Vietnam.
I immediately took a liking to him because he was a people’s person with a dramatic, kind energy that I’ve ever known. Bob spent a lot of his military career on a ship as a navy man. Many times I would go by, sit on the porch with him, and the minutes sure faded into hours as we talked about everything. But, like most veterans, Bob never shared much about his time in the military. Over the six years that I knew Bob, I came to feel very strongly about this individual and all the people that he touched. I guess, in a way, he reminded me of my father, because no matter the problem or whether he understood it or not, you always felt better about it after talking through it with him.