Ours was a military family. The only thing outnumbering Marine Corps emblems in our house were crucifixes. When I was 10, we were stationed in Hawai’i. My father, a major in the U.S. Marine Corps, was just back from having served in Vietnam.

On a winter night, he and my mom got my younger brother and me up at 2 a.m. They loaded us into our Rambler station wagon and took us to Hickham Air Force Base. I remember being at the airfield at 3 a.m., staring at an empty tarmac upon which was rolled out a red carpet. We were there with hundreds of military families to meet the first group of returning POWs from the Vietnam war.

'Tears on the faces of every man in uniform'

We waited on that tarmac with hand-printed posters and signs. I remember as those planes landed and taxied to the gate; the c

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