I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what to post along with these photographs. I don’t really know a lot about them. I know they were taking by or of my father during his military service during the Vietnam war, but I don’t know much more than that. My father is the achingly skinny dude pictured solo in a lot of them. Dad and I have a pretty complex (and at the moment, non-existent) relationship that’s keeping me from asking him anything about them. When he first lent me the photographs, he didn’t have a lot to say about them. But then again, he’s never really had a lot to say about Vietnam, at least not without some wine to grease the wheels.
I posted something on Ask MetaFilter, asking if there was an easy way to track down the details of my father’s military service. There isn’t. And one vet and father posted a response that got me thinking about whether or not this is really my story to tell, given that my father hasn’t shared this information with me and is still alive. I am not sure I completely agree nor disagree with that responder, but it did get me thinking.
I also got a really heartfelt “MeMail” (MetaFilter’s private messaging service) from one user who outlined some of his own experiences with his own Vet father. I wasn’t sure what to think of it, but it was very moving. I won’t share the details here, because if he wanted to make it public, he would have himself. Suffice it to say that I had a similar experience, and I suspect there are a lot of us out there with That Kind of Dad.
So below, posted without much context, is a slideshow of a handful of photographs of another time, place, and a young man that would eventually grow up to be my father.
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