Why he doesn't participate in 'these things'...

Perhaps a better (or at least more succinct) title for this blog post should be 'UGH'.  I don't like to rant in public, but please bear with me as I do just that... at least a little bit.  :)

My dear husband is the love of my life, my best friend and truly my hero.  I don't tell him any of that nearly often enough but I do try to take advantage of opportunities to show how proud I am of him.  Last fall I thought I had found a way to do just that and I jumped on it.  Our local newspaper advertised that they were putting together a book about area veterans and were accepting photos to be in the publication.  I really wanted Marvin to be in that book as a way of publicly recognizing him for his service and sacrifice.  I told Marvin what I was doing and he was, shall we say, less than enthused.  In his words, 'he just doesn't like participating in these things because somehow they never work out right'.   I went on ahead with my plans because, in my words, 'what could possibly go wrong with this'??   Ugh...

So, about a month ago I got word that the books were in and I excitedly went to pick them up.  I bought two copies; one for us and one for Mama and Daddy as a gift.  Jackson immediately started looking through the book to find his Daddy's photos.  We had turned in a total of 4 photos of Marvin and Jackson was only able to find two.  They were both taken prior to his injuries, which I thought was a bit odd, but figured maybe they didn't have room for all the photos that had been turned in.  Then Jackson turned a page and discovered the other two photos were indeed in the book, they just weren't all together.  Again, weird, but... okay.  At least they were all there.  Jackson was quiet for a moment while he looked at the book then he asked in a confused voice, "Mom, Dad wasn't ever shot, was he?"  "No,"  I said.  "Why?"  Jackson just handed me the book so I could see for myself.  There, next to Marvin's official army portrait was the caption "...Mann was shot soon after boot camp".   Whaaattttt????  I couldn't even begin to figure that out.  I mean, I had filled out the forms for each and every photo and had written the captions and information myself.  I would NEVER had said Marvin was shot... and he certainly wasn't injured right after boot camp.  He was blown out of a tunnel in the jungles of Vietnam.  A little different...   Plus, both of the first two photos said that he had been 'Discharged' when in actuality he was 'Retired'.  That may not seem like a big difference to some, but to a military person it is a HUGE difference.  Marvin was 100% service connected disabled retired, not discharged.  

I was totally confused and feeling rather ticked off.  SO much of Marvin's information was wrong and I just couldn't figure out how it could have happened.  It just didn't make any sense at all.  I flashed back to Marvin telling me how 'these things never work out' and I just felt sick.  I had been so sure that this WOULD work out...

Then I remembered that when I picked up the books they had returned the photos and the forms that I had initially filled out.  I looked at those forms and that is when I figured it all out.  They just screwed it up.  Look at what happened....

Do you see where it asks "What was the occasion or event depicted"?  And do you see my answer?  I am describing that photo - the event or occasion was that this photo was the 'portrait shot soon after boot camp'.  The PORTRAIT was shot... not the PERSON!!!  The portrait!!!!  Not the 'patriot'!!!!!  Good grief.  Yes, I do see that 'shot' may not have been the best way for me to get my meaning across, but I would have thought that a photography term such as that would be understandable by a newspaper.  By the way... while we are looking at this handy dandy form, do you see just above that where I have circled and asterisked 'retired'?  I even wrote a little note to provide further information.  But, clearly, I have circled 'retired' NOT 'discharged'.  I seriously don't know what I could have done to make any of this any clearer.

Below you can see that the four photos of Marvin are not together on the same two page layout.  I believe that two different people must have worked on the two different pages because both photos on the left say 'discharged' and the caption error is also on the left page.  The two photos on the right page are correct in their captions and say 'retired'... just as shown on the form I filled out.

When I showed the book to Marvin and then showed him the forms and described how this all must have happened, he first stood there quietly shaking his head.  Then he burst out laughing... and laughed and laughed and laughed!  As he noted, if you really paid any attention to the information in this book you would have to believe that he went to boot camp, was pretty immediately 'shot', then 'discharged', then sent to Vietnam, then in a hospital after receiving wounds, then retired, then finally attended college as a blind student.  He had quite a few years there, eh?  I love my dear, kind, honorable, gentle, 'glass is filled to over-flowing' husband and I promise to listen to him next time around.  :)

Okay... rant over.  Sarcasm safely tamped down once again.  I will probably feel guilty about complaining so publicly in just a few hours.  But, I had to get that all off my chest (and I do somehow feel better).  :)   And in the future, I will absolutely understand when my dear husband says quietly, 'these things just never seem to work out'.