Birthday month

February was always considered birthday month in our family. One brother, my sister, my mother and a second brother who snuck in over the line on March 1 celebrated their day in February. Then brother Jim married his sweetie who also was born in the shortest month of the year. Then there are several the next generation down with February birthdays...there are a bunch. Time has changed that. Two of the four originals are gone. No one expects to live to be a hundred so it is not surprising that Mother (born in 1903) is not around. I guess the toughest one is brother Joe who was born this day in 1928. He is a member of Brokaw's greatest generation...just made it into that zone: pre-depression and hot to go during WWII. While he just missed serving in The War, he joined the Navy right out of high school when they were still graduating two classes a year...ostensibly to get the young ones into the workforce or the military. I think he still was awarded the WWII victory medal by serving in 1946. He was a "Kiddy Cruiser" which means that if you enlist before you are 18 you get out on your 21st birthday. I think the Navy is the only service that had that sort of deal. He got in just before his 18th birtday after a January graduation, but only served 22 months active duty because that was during the time they were dismantling the military. He went onboard a CVE which is one of those mass produced Kaiser Coffin hulls that they put a flight deck on. He was an airdale meaning he was in a squadron and not ship's company. He was designated an Aviation Metalsmith which is much as it sounds. Planes during those times were made of aluminum rivited together. He could weld and braze and all that stuff. But they were short of gunners for TBYs in the squadron so he volunteered to be the tail gunner on one of those torpedo bombers. They acturally flew missions in the Pacific looking for Japanese suicide subs that would not give up after the war was declared over. He had many stories to tell.

I mention all this stuff because Joe became my shadowy mentor. He was one of my dads...because my own was on duty during 1942-45 and because his view of the world and his view of life was very similar to mine. It is no coincidence that I too went to Penn State and studied agriculture, and that I too joined the Navy and served on an Aircraft Carrier (my first choice of ship which others shunned with a vengence), and that I too worked in a service profession (teaching vs extension) and untimately ended up in HR in fast paced business. Joe ended his career in HR at Cargill. So, on his 77th birthday, I honor him and like his own family, I miss him. Just knowing he was around to talk to once in a while was enough. Time marches on and quite frankly I hope I live to be at least 72 like he did. He held the age record for male Lutzes, which is eclipsed by brother Dave who will be 74 March first. But Dave's record is suspect because he has been juiced for a few years (takes medication to control some ailments). I don't think Joe ever took anything stronger than asprin. (This is all tongue in cheek, right now).

If I go over 72 there will be an asterisk next to my name since I have been juiced since 1995.

So on the 60th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima and 77th aniversary of JFL I salute all veterans of that era and thank them for doing their part in getting us to where we are today. Without them, the outcomes might have been much different. Now, I wonder if sixty years from now people will feel the same about us?