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Show ROBERT THAYER D B R 2 2 ROB: Just one. Well, see, my wife was thirty when Tana wa b rn. . by the time I got home, I was thirty years old when I got out of the service. Well by th tim we got squared around, Tana was born in '47. I got home in the latter the very last part of '45 so we had Tanna in '47 and, I don't know, at that age, one seemed enough. Whereas all of my friends that hadn't gone in the service all had two or three kids and were pretty well established in business. And I had to start all over from scratch. So at times, I felt like the military service had been a detriment to me, but now that I look back with my reserve retirement and everything, it wasn't a detriment. It was something I had to do. I was drafted, but I volunteered before to go into these schools. I wasn't the most willing person to go to war, and I can't claim any bravery. I wasn't one of the ones that went down and volunteered and everything, but I never shirked anything and I did what they wanted me to do, and I was pretty successful at it. BEC: Obviously. ROB: So, that's my theory on that, that's my outlook on my military. I don't regret it one bit. I think the experience I had made a man out of me. I think the experiences I had you would never, ever acquire any other way than in the military during a war, during THE war that I think was justified of all wars. These other wars, I'm not so sure and I'm really-maybe this isn't something we should talk about. I'm not too enthused about us attacking Iraq. And most of the military people I know feel the same way I do, of the old people, you know. They feel like our nation has never been an aggressive nation. We've been a nation that if we were attacked or if we had a real purpose, why, we went in and we did the job and we were on the right side. I don't know that some of that Vietnam was right. I have mixed emotions about that. The thing I didn't 56 |
