OF INTEREST
I’ve got ribbons and awards coming out my ears that I have accumulated over the course of the years, they all mean something because each and every one is combat related. Not an administrative ribbon in the lot and no sign of a good conduct award either. The reality is that this type of stuff doesn’t mean anything to anyone but another soldier. To someone who knows what they stand for, how much you gave of yourself.
No one outside the military knows what all of the hash marks on my sleeves means, or the jump badges or flashes mean; they don’t know what all of the emblems mean. They don’t know what the leaves mean or the stars or v-devices mean. Only those who have been in the military know what they mean and they are the one’s that show their respect with a small nod of the head.
Those in the Military know that those trinkets mean that you have been up the creek and over the mountain and have seen the varmint.
Becca knew what each and every trinket meant, she knew the criteria for each one and never passed a soldier, sailor, airman, marine or coastie without giving him/her a thank you and a kiss on the cheek and she gave those thank-you’s from her heart and soul as she did with the kiss.
She knew what every ribbon meant that her father had tossed into a box and she knew what each of the trinkets that I used to wear meant.
She knew each and every ribbon and award that her brothers received as well and when she married and Tony was called back, I remember watching her stand in a chair next to him and very gently touch and caress each of his awards and give each a blessing and a request that he be kept safe and brought home to her.
She did the same for me when I went back. Maybe that’s why he and I made it back to her when she needed us.
When she was little she would sit in my lap when I visited and tell me what each extraneous piece of junk meant and then she would touch each one and then touch her fingertip to her lips and then give each of those ribbons and awards a “Becky Kiss” with her fingertips and somehow, when she did that, they seemed a little brighter and seemed to actually mean something.
That was one of the last things that she did for me before she died.