My Military Grandma

    In the times of war, men go off and fight, leaving behind their wives and children to keep the homeland running smoothly. This means women have to hold down the fort and raise the children while their husbands are away. They also have to work to support the family. I have such a woman in my family: my grandma, Lynn Wright. She took care of my mom while grandpa fought in Vietnam in the late 60’s.

My grandpa joined the military in 1960. He went on two tours, Thailand and Vietnam, during his career. He was an E4 when he went to Vietnam. His job was a heavy equipment repairman. He basically fixes heavy machines for battle. While in the service, he met my grandma in 1963. They met before but it wasn’t so close as the second time. She and him dated for two years. They married in 1965. A year after that, my mom was born in June.

In the 1960’s, war broke out in Vietnam. My grandpa was ordered to go in sixty-six. He left grandma to take care of my mom when she was three months old. There was the common problem with grandma that is common to military wives, what was she to do now? She was a strong woman. Prayer for grandpa’s safe return and the support of family and friends helped her hang on. During the war, military wives did have as much support as they do today. All they had was each other to lean on. Grandma had to have her feet firmly on the ground. When she was young, she raised her two brothers while their mom was away in an institution for eleven years. My grandma ruled with an iron fist. She had to cook, clean, and work on the farm to support them.

First, grandma and mom moved back to Kentucky while grandpa was in Vietnam to live with her parents for a year. To keep herself from being worried about the war, Grandma helped people in her community. She spent time with the elderly and took them shopping when their grandchildren didn’t want to be bothered with them. She felt great about her charity but she needed more to do. In her spare time, grandma lived how to sew that same year. Her deaf cousin taught her how to. Grandma was clumsy at first but in time, she was skilled at it.

When Grandpa returned from Vietnam, he, mom, and grandma had orders to move to mainland Japan. While there, grandma was in many volunteer programs. Due to her work in Kentucky, she found it easy to help others in Tokyo, Japan. When my family left Japan, grandma did even more volunteer work for the family services and wives’ clubs in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Then, grandpa got orders to go to Thailand. Thailand at the time was supporting the war. This time instead of going home, grandma and mom went to a waiting-wives base in Kansas. There, she and the other wives helped each other out. Grandma did even more volunteer work with a friend in the base by driving around the wives that didn’t have driver’s licences shopping on and off base and held bible studies for them. She and mom made tape recordings to send to grandpa and he sent them back a tape as well. While the war was on, grandma learned a valuable and rewarding lesson. If you help out others and pray, you will survive strongly in any crisis life brings you. I can see what she has learned has rubbed off on my aunt and myself.