Salute to dear old Dad on his 88th

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- It is my father's 88th birthday. When we asked him what he would like as gifts, he said, "People! People around me." Then he added, "Ah, yes, and peace."
My father is a war hero. He fought in Europe in World War II and was awarded many medals and honors. He was one of the earliest to be inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame. He has a loving wife, nine children and upteen grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Our hearts were bursting with pride as the governor encircled his neck with a heavy medal hung on an impressive red, white and blue ribbon. The ceremony was solemn and momentous. The stage was festooned with flags, many flags.
Long ago, Dad used to have nightmares about the war. Once he tore through a screened door and raced across a field in his sleep, thinking he was still at war. On occasion, few now, when he sees his old Army buddies, their bond is still as strong as ever. But like many, perhaps most veterans, he never used to talk about what war was truly like.
During a family reunion, we all went to see the movie "Saving Private Ryan." Although Dad insisted that he and his soldiers did not swear nearly as much as their movie counterparts did and that street-to-street fighting in German towns came in spurts, not in sustained hours of shooting, he allowed as how the movie brought back powerful memories.
War experiences
For the first time, he told us about some of his own war experiences. War, he said, was and is hell. Combat was chewing up men so fast in World War II that officers were pouring into the service without adequate training. Dad told us that he will never forget the young, naive officer, just off the boat, who ordered his men to charge a German force across a broad, open field while carrying their 60-pound packs. He recalled, still heartsick, that they dropped like flies.
But now he is honored -- the ceremonies continue -- not just for his battlefield heroics and leadership, but also for his community service after the war. Using the GI Bill, he became a lawyer. Never raising his fees, and spending as much time with poor clients who couldn't pay as he did with others who could, he supported a large family and sent his children to college by dint of hard, unceasing work.
Dad was active in service clubs and many community projects. He started a Civil War band. He sponsored a Revolutionary War re-enactment unit. (Mother, when she wasn't tending to nine children, sewed the uniforms.) He started a farm where re-enactors could practice shooting their muzzleloaders.
Like many soldiers who came back from World War II, my father's life has been a monument to public service. His oldest son became an Army general. Two of his grandsons are in the Army.
A lifelong Republican, my father lives in the county that gave President Bush his second term. Clark County was the only one in Ohio that switched from voting Democratic in 2000 to Republican in 2004. Ohio gave the president just enough votes to be re-elected. White House political aide Karl Rove knew exactly what he was doing when he marshaled an unparalleled grass-roots effort in Clark County.
But that was then. This is now. Bush is no longer popular here. He may tout changes in immigration law and constitutional amendments that would ban same-sex marriages and flag-burning, but he still sends the county's young men and women to war.
Sinking popularity
Clark County voters like my father worry not just about Iraq and the country's morality, but also its sinking popularity abroad. They wonder where the nation is headed. There is economic uncertainty here, but, even more, there is uncertainty about the future and fear about whether its leaders know where they are going, even with the killing of the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. When Bush's name is mentioned here, although much less frequently, there is a widespread shaking of heads.use forgot to send Dad a birthday card this year. That mammoth card-sending machine in the basement of the Old Executive Office Building must have had a glitch. But the appeals for money from the Republican Party, which pays for the cards, continue.
Never mind. Father's family, friends and neighbors remember. Happy birthday, Dad. And thank you, from your family and from your country. And here's to peace.
Scripps Howard News Service columnist Ann McFeatters has covered the White House and national politics since 1986.