VETERAN'S DAY 2023

This year I decided to tell my personal Veterans Day story or to be honest, that of my father and mother. My dad, Arthur E. Bird was one of seven siblings and as the Second World War approached closer and closer he and his family thought about its impact. Just a few months shy of the outbreak of the war my father was hit by a drunk driver where he sustained massive injuries including a broken right leg, a broken pelvis, his back, most of the ribs on his right side and his collarbone along with internal injuries but despite this as he recuperated all he could think of was joining the US Army which he did in late 1942. Though finishing boot camp he was deemed ineligible for combat duty overseas and received advanced medics training and was assigned to troop and prisoner trains crisscrossing the country while stationed at Fort Dix, NJ and Fort Benning, GA. 

 This is of course where my story comes in as my father would take leave and spend time in NYC where he met my mother, Nancy T. Antonacci who worked in the US Army Signal Core where she acted as a coded stenographer. Both of my parents and their siblings felt the need to serve in some capacity ranging from DOD contract work, USO assistance and my father's other brother, Rexford joining the US Army, fighting through Europe. The attached photo is my parents wedding photo from 1947, about a year after my father left the service and I make my entrance quite a few years later. Neither talked very much about their part but both were proud to have contributed in the best way that they could. I realize there are hundreds of thousands of these stories but this one is mine, from my family and it is what I best remember on Veterans Day and every day that I remember mom and dad, together again.