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This Is My Country

This Is My Country

I am proud to have served my country in the United States Air Force.  I enlisted during a time our country was going through some battles of our own.  A lot of people felt the war was useless and didn't need to have happened.  It was in 1968 when I joined   I can remember catching the Gray Hound Bus at the station in Portsmouth, OH.  I can still picture mom, dad and some of the family waving good-bye to me as I looked out the bus window on my way to Columbus. There we were to catch a plain to Amarillo Texas for 

basic training.  Back then basic training was intense due to the war.  There was a girl back home I was dating that I fell head over hills for.  Every time we sat down in the chow hall to eat and before I went to bed at night, though I wasn't in church at the time, I prayed that I could go home on leave, get marry to the love of my life and be stationed in Fla.

After basic training, I was told I was going to Tulle Greenland in Alaska.  I felt so broken hearted, but when my original orders came down they said I was going to Crestview Fla., the largest Air Force Base in the world.  I was so excited.  When I arrived at my home, we were married at her house and we traveled all over the country together.  Some said we had to get married, but it was five years later after we were married before we had our first baby and she was a girl.  We named her Deanna Melissa and called her Missy.  I remember dancing with her in our living room to an old song, "Funny Face", and I sometimes call her that to this day.  Later came my son, John D. Foster, Jr., whom I am so proud of.  After his graduation from high school, he entered the Marines and served in the sandbox in the middle east. Next came our twins, Stacy and Tracy.  The doctor told my wife the next time it could be triplets and, well after that, we didn't have anymore.

 

There were a few who called us names because we didn't have to go to Vietnam, thank the Lord I didn't.  I can say I enlisted, I wasn't drafted. 

If I can remember right, sometime in 69 my wife's brother, Raymond, was KIA in Vietnam.  He was shot once and they sent him back to America.  After he recovered, he insisted on going back to be with his buddies.  He didn't feel right about leaving them behind to fight. He volunteered to be point man while on patrol and he was shot by a sniper.  It was a hard time for the whole family.  I didn't get to go to the funeral, but I sent my wife back home to be with her family for a few days.

 

Raymond was the only family member, that I know of, that was ever killed serving his country.  I have a brother that served in the Army, a uncle who served in the Marines, another uncle who served in the Army, a cousin who served in the Army, a son-in-law who served in the Navy, another son-in-law who served in the Marines, a X daughter-in-law who served in the Air Force and my son served in the Marines.  My grandpa served on the Portsmouth Police Department and after my cousin's discharge from the Army, he served on the Ohio Highway Patrol and as an investigator at S.O.C.F. (a prison in Lucasville, OH)

 

I am sure there are others in our family who served.  My dad didn't get to serve, friends of his were playing with firecrackers. Someone threw one and it went off by his ear and caused damage.  He tried to join, but they wouldn't take him because of it.  Even though dad didn't get to serve, he was still my hero.  He worked hard every day at the mill to provide for his family, he provided us with a home, he saved my life when he unplugged the electric cord that was taking me down, he helped others and cared about people, he raised a Marine, Army, and Airman who served their country with honor and he died a Christian.

 

Thank the Lord for a country where we have the freedom to choose and live where and how we choose too.  I am proud to be called an American and a Christian.  I served my country as a young man and I would be proud to serve again today in any way I could.  God bless America, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

Joshua 24:15

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  

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Brother-in-law Raymond G. Skaggs

Me; John D. Foster, Sr.

Son-in-law Kenneth Eldridge

Cousin Phil Vassor

Scioto County Sheriff

Uncle Richard L. Foster

Son John D. Foster, Jr.

Grandpa William Bill Setters - Portsmough PD

Uncle Richard Bowles

Brother Forrest S. Bauer

Son-in-law Timmothy Fields

Cousin William Bill Vassor

United States Army - Served with the Ohio State Patrol

Former Daughter-in-law Christy

United States Air Force

Grandson Nichlouis D. Foster

Army Cadet

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Nick's Army Cadet Training

Slideshow

My Foreign Exchange Student

Philipp Schoroder

Navel Officer - G;ermany

Jaycob Foster - Grandson

United States Navy

Back  To  My  Cause

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