We sent the best brother we had

I never served in the military. So, I don’t know what those men hunkered down on Bunker Hill were thinking on that warm afternoon of June 17, 1775… When it must have seemed like every British Redcoat in the universe was climbing up that hill towards them. I know the outcome regardless of what was running through their minds. They didn’t bend, they didn’t bow, they didn’t break. Many of them gave their “last full measure” for a country that hadn’t even been officially established yet. That speaks volumes about those early American veterans. When we were kids, Leon talked me into going camping with him out by Carroll Lake. It was December, and as you could imagine, colder than the outside of an abandoned igloo in Point Barrow, Alaska, on Christmas morning. He said we were making memories. Our memories forgot to include matches. Or any firewood. My hands were so cold I couldn’t open my can of pork and beans.

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