November is the month we celebrate Veteran's Day, and it's the month of my Dad's birthday. My mother presented me with my Dad's masonic ring shortly after his death, and in his honor I wore it last November and have decided to wear it this year as well.

His service to our country all those years ago in WWII means more to me now than it did before, perhaps because he's gone, perhaps because I know better now how young 17 really is. I've watched several episodes of the Ken Burns series on The War on public television this fall. I have no way of knowing what kinds of battle experiences my Dad had because he didn't talk about it much. Even when we were little kids, infatuated with war and soldiers and guns, he didn't share much about his days in the Navy. My mother thinks it might have been because he was ashamed of much of what he did in the war.

Anyway, I'm proud my Dad served our great country in that awful war, and I wear his ring this month in his honor.