Summer always brings vacations to mind. People like to take off time from work to relax or visit some exotic locale. I like vacations, but I still catch a lot of grief from my family about my tendency to schedule vacations to travel near a battlefield.
Battlefields are fascinating places. They provide an opportunity to reflect upon historical events that led to war as well as an opportunity to consider military operations’ issues and decision making.
It’s difficult to accept that my wife and four daughters did not always find such issues as rabidly interesting as I did. I thought the discussions of fields of fire were enlightening.
Tactical discussions have applications to other subjects, such as sports and even dating. Don’t they?
Decision making is a useful topic in everyday life, whether selecting a topic for a school paper or which shoes to wear. Battlefield discussions are marvelous tools for preparing for anything.
As you can probably tell, my loved ones did not always agree on my selection of destinations.
Marilyn still harasses me for taking Shannon (age 5), Amanda (age 3) and her on a tour of the World War II Operation Market Garden in Holland, using the book “A Bridge Too Far” as a guide. I bought the girls wooden shoes.
What else do you buy in Holland? They still have them. Just because Shannon drew a show-and-tell picture of graveyard crosses and one black tulip, that’s no reason to be upset.
A few years later, on our second tour in Germany, Amanda enjoyed a special spring break treat. While her friends accomplished nothing useful on a beach in Spain, we visited the Huertgen Forest World War II battlefield in Germany.
At least she laughed when the peacock at the restaurant chased me off the premises. Mary and Carole didn’t mind taking up good firing positions in the breastworks remaining from the Civil War battle in the Wilderness in Virginia. They did a fine job for being only 10 years old.
Of course, Mary and Carole thought they had escaped battlefields when we moved to Korea. Can you imagine that? I proudly told them that there was a whole new set of battlefields in Korea, with the Task Force Smith site being near where they would go to school.
They did a fine job as my training aides in the old positions where we could analyze the fight.
Just recently, I knew that at least one of my children had accepted the value of visiting military related sites when traveling.
Mary is in South Africa on a study abroad trip from the University of Georgia. One of the first places the group visited was an old Dutch fort.
Mary e-mailed me that she found the fort interesting, but the rest of the students were not impressed.
Well, at least Mary understood. I think my other daughters do, too. They just don’t want to admit it.
I think a battlefield is a wonderful addition to a family vacation.
I’m still trying to schedule time to visit the Little Big Horn.
I’ll keep looking, because there are always battlefields nearby. If someone wasn’t interested in fighting over it at some point, why would anyone want to be there?
John M. House is a retired Army colonel who lives in Midland, Ga. His e-mail is housearmylife@aol.com.
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