Veterans Day

This Veteran's day I sit back and remember the only Veteran I have ever really known.

As a youth my father often wasn't around due to his job. He would often go out to sea for months on in, and when he was home he would commute hours to and from work. I would be getting ready for bed, and he would just be getting home. I would wake up early for school, and he had just walked out the door. We hardly got the opportunity to develop that strong bond between a father and his only son.

Every time he would return home from a long cruise, my mother and I would go to the docks. It seemed like a game, who would spot him first? I'm not sure who won that game, but I do know that as soon as I spotted him amongst the crowd of soldiers my eyes would well up with tears, I couldn't form sentences, nor look him in the eye. I just wanted to feel his presence and hold him as long as I could.

After 20 years in the Navy Ira Keith Spencer Sr. retired. I felt joy for his accomplishment and was so incredibly proud. It was at his retirement speech in 1999 when I first started to realize how important the military is to him. As I got older I realized how selfish I used to be. I never took the time to think why. I never took the time to put myself in his shoes. I never took the time to think that my father was out there risking his life not only for his country but for his family. I see that now.

A husband/father is called by God to be the protector and provider of the family, and he was merely following the path that God had paved for him. I thank him for his sacrifices, and love him dearly for being the best father anyone could ask for.

Now when I go home and I see his shadow box of medals and accomplishments I think of what an amazing man my father is. I look up to him and the struggles of my youth are merely in the past. I have a strong, loyal, determined, and respectable father in front of me now. Happy Veteran's Day Pop.