As we grow in age , comes wisdom from experience but l have wondered how every single thing we do today this second of human time affects our future, What we do today marks our past and future so we do have the power to change the past and the future . Perhaps no one knows much about any person the one you sat next to in school. My father was a great man and one of my greatest friend in my life, he was a survivor of the Battan Death March, as a Prisoner of War at the age of 20 he fought for the right to live. My father was declared Missing in Action , then he was declared dead , but later Grandmother received the best news she could get Faustino Betancourt was a Prisoner of War . I took my Pop and my Mom to a P.O.W - M.l.A reunion in New Mexico where we met a Japanese Soldier and now a Proud American , to my Pops surprise this Jap was a Photographer for the Japanese Government now documenting and taking photos of the W.W.ll prison camps . Here right in front of us were Photos of my father pushing a Railroad Coal Car . Father was just looking over at the Photographer. What a beautiful photo of hell with all its Glory . Father would not allow us to own guns, or fight against another person. Father spent his adult life working for the U.S Government the last 20 years at Williams Air Force Base. Father was declared a war hero posthumously by the President and high command Generals at a military ceremony in 1995 at Luke Air Force Base. Father was 1/3 owner of the El Toro Restaurant and Bar in Port Isabel right at the entrance to The famous beach Padre Island at the time this was the only way in or out of the island just about 300 feet from the bridge to the entrance of this beautiful Spring Break Beach. Going to this beautiful Popular Beach was just Normalcy to me and our friends and Families . We would go Deep Sea Fishing and just enjoy life. There was also Boca Chica also Glorious Ocean, but now Elon Musk owner of Space X has taken the beauty of this beautiful place we called Boca Chica Progress, the enchanting beach that only Children can dream of is not gone but it’s changed . I myself worked for the same company in Tempe for 30 years before realizing that we only live for a short time here on earth so I Retired . I know I was very fortunate and grateful that I was blessed with personal wealth and most importantly my health . In 1990 , 1991 l was fortunate enough to be part of a wonderful team that supplied the U.S Government with firing pins for Bombs it required me to Sign my Signature that I was not a continuous objector to the destruction and or killing of life , this was my duty. I was required to give my blueprints of my designs for the tooling of the machines for the purpose
Of Protecting Freedom, We just don’t know who was sitting next to you in class.