USS LST-325<\/a>, one of the the last navigable tank landing ships from WW2 in existence, was visiting local Dubuque for a five day visit.\u00a0 I thought this would be interesting, so Missy and I decided to go.\u00a0 Apparently, many other people also thought it would be interesting as well, and they all decided to go, too.\u00a0 We get there and we see this looooooooooong line stretching along the aquarium.\u00a0 I sense I have been thwarted.\u00a0 Long story short, the wait was three to four hours, and while I wanted to see the ship, I don’t have that kind of patience.\u00a0 Instead, we hung around, checked out the outside, took some photos, then blew a wad of cash at the aquarium gift shop.<\/p>\nBut that’s not why I’m writing this.<\/p>\n
While we were standing under a gazebo at the water’s edge, Missy and I started to hear some slow clapping.\u00a0 We turn around and an old man is ambling up to the registration table.\u00a0 He was a WW2 veteran.\u00a0 Not only do WW2 vets get free admission to the tours, they also get escorted to the front of the line.\u00a0 Another man in a uniform… I think he was emulating MacArthur, not sure… saluted the older man and placed a medal around his neck.\u00a0 All the while the crowd around has stopped everything they were doing and slowly clapped in reverence and smiled at the scene.<\/p>\n
Doing some quick math in my head, presuming the man was 18 years old in 1945, he would be at least 90 years old today, and probably actually is older than that.\u00a0 Seeing the respect this gentleman was offered… I’ll use the word reverence again… was entirely fitting, and… emotional.\u00a0 Missy teared up a bit, and I won’t lie, I did , too.<\/p>\n
In the accompanying photo, the older gentleman veteran is the one in the blue jeans and hat and using a cane.\u00a0 (“MacArthur” can be seen three people to the right.)\u00a0 Ok, I shouldn’t make fun, he’s probably a veteran worthy of respect, too, but he did look a bit like when the tv show M*A*S*H would have someone dress up as MacArthur.<\/p>\n
Anyway, it was a very moving moment, and I am glad that I got to be part of it, even if only in an observatory manner.\u00a0 I could feel the hostility that hung in the air due to the long line and hot humid afternoon pretty much disappear.<\/p>\n
In spite of my 400+ word essay here, words fail me… in a good way this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We’re taking a break from our usual curmudgeoness today.\u00a0 I’m going to relate a scene at an event I went to yesterday. The WW2 ship USS LST-325, one of the the last navigable tank landing ships from WW2 in existence, was visiting local Dubuque for a five day visit.\u00a0 I thought this would be interesting, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-observations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/LST-325-300x200.jpg\")
We’re taking a break from our usual curmudgeoness today.\u00a0 I’m going to relate a scene at an event I went to yesterday.<\/p>\n