This morning, I had the privilege of attending a special Veteran’s Day chapel service at my boys’ school. It was a sweet service full of patriotism and cute little kiddos. We sang “Our Country Tis of Thee” as our piano player gracefully played and were led in the pledge of allegiance by the students. After the students led us in singing the chapel worship songs, the veterans in the audience were honored as we stood for our respective service song. The Air Force song still gets me excited when I hear it!
“Off we go into the wild blue yonder, climbing high into the sun;
Here they come, zooming to meet our thunder, at ‘em, boys, give’s the gun! [Give’er the gun, now!]
Down we dive, spouting our flame from under, off with one helleva roar,
We live in fame or go down in flame, hey! Nothing will stop the US Air Force!
This is the version of the Air Force song that I sang while in service. It was changed in 2020.
Although my memory of the lyrics was a little rusty this morning, the tune brought back fond memories of my military service.
I am reminded of the bitter cold mornings that I spent running through the campus of the University of Washington as an AFROTC cadet while the senior Cadets yelled at us to sing the Air Force song. I am reminded of every official Air Force function I attended where we sang our fight song – Dining In, Combat Dining In, retirements, promotions, award ceremonies, Fallen Comrade memorials…all of them! And there were ALOT! Most importantly, I am reminded of the sacrifices that the men and women before me paid with their blood, sweat and tears as they sang the Air Force song on battlefields across the world. However, something unexpected happened today when I heard the Air Force song for the first time in many years.
This was the first veteran related event that I have attended since becoming a mother.
It felt very awkward to be standing there holding my baby daughter, singing the Air Force song, while my two oldest sons sat in the audience. It really felt contra dictory – a loving mother singing a military fight song.It felt even more strange when my sweet four year old brought me his handmade “Thank You Veteran” card. It was so sweet to receive a handmade card made by my son, please don’t get me wrong. The reason I say that it felt strange is that I have never talked about my service with my children, other than a brief mention of “Mommy was in the Air Force”.
For the past six year, my previous military life has always been separate from my Mom life. Part of the reason that I have not shared more with my children is that they are still very young (all 6 and under) and I want to protect their innocence. For now, the only concept of war that I want them to understand are the battles they wage against the bad guys in Mario or Zelda. So for today, “Thank You for Your Service” seems strange to me. I need to wrestle with the seeming contradiction between being a loving mother and a military veteran for a bit longer. This is all I can unpack for now.
