When I sat down to do this project with Papa I brought envelopes full of family photos to spur memories and conversation. When I was thinking it through, I knew I wanted to ask briefly about his time in the United States Military, but also knew that I didn't intend to speak for very long about the subject. I have never known Papa to discuss his time serving in the Korean War, at least not with me. So you can imagine my surprise when he left the room to go get his own box of pictures, cleverly disguised as a Christmas package. Inside, was just a few envelopes and stacks of pictures wrapped in rubber bands; two of those stacks contained his pictures from his time in Korea. Of course, he first reached for the pictures from his moose hunting trip to Maine, but then the conversation quickly turned, by his own accord, to his time in Korea. He flipped through them one at a time and explained what was shown. Some of the photos he didn't linger on, some had longer stories, and some spurred other thoughts unrelated to the pictures he was holding. During the War Papa served on the ground in the United States Air Force where he "intercepted the enemy's messages" so that the U.S could send up their own fighter jets. 

 

The video above is a compilation of Papa talking about some of these photos. They aren't all included, but those that are are the ones that seemed to illicit either the most animated response from Papa, or that taught me something.