Thank you to all who have sent your Irish familys' veteran stories. They have touched my heart. You have reminded me of my Mom, Cecily McDermott (1932-1998) born in Paisley,Scotland to my Irish grandfather, Patrick McDermott (d.1942) and Flora Campbell (d. 1934-1935), from Benbecula. Dates and details are blurred since we never got them in writing from my Mom, but the stories were often told at family events and holidays such as today because my Mom and her family were storytellers and the memories of war was their childhood. Paisley, Scotland during World War II circa 1940-1941. When my mother, the second youngest in a family of 13, was a small girl, probably 8 or 9 years old, she remembers that her brother John had come home on leave from the British war. John was no stranger to calamities. As a small toddler, John survived the historic and tragic Paisley Glen Cinema fire when he was lost for more than a day, but found alive and well in the womens and girls hospital ward. Because of his long blonde curls, he was thought to have been a girl. As a young lad he survived losing one of his kidneys when he was punctured by a spiked ornamental iron fence when he slipped. John, now a British Army Infantry was home on leave and very sick. By the time he needed to go back he was extremely ill with fever, not even knowing where he was. He didn't show back at the barracks on time and the MP's came around for him. The situation was explained to them. My mom recalled the screaming through the house from her sisters when the doctor came out of the bedroom shutting the door with the prognosis of meningitis. It was a death sentence. My uncle was taken to the hospital and the family knew they would never see him again. When the family went to the hospital to see what happened, they were told by the doctors they were going to try something new, a new drug on him. Penicillin. Thankfully it worked and my uncle John recovered completely and lived a long life. Another uncle, Charley, My Aunt Cathy's first husband though was not as lucky. Captured in France, he was a prisoner of war but survived and returned home to Paisley. He was so emanciated and his system weak that despite having good food and loving care, he developed a huge carbuncle on the back of his neck and died. I don't know if they had developed penicillin then or if this happened before my Uncle John's meningitis. My Uncle Malcolm was also in the British Army and fought in Africa and Ethiopia. He would tell of one time where he and the troops were attacked as they approached a palm clustered oasis with short helmeted men marching, wild shooting, and guns being thrown, only to find when it settled down that they had been fighting with either baboons or orangutans who had gotten into an abandoned camp and were imitating the previous residents who must have left quickly. My mom grew up and at the age of 17 entered the Women's Royal English Navy as a cook. She traveled to Italy, Germany, and Trieste where she met my father who was in the United States Army Intelligence and fell in love. They married in Manchester, England and came back to the States. My father, grew up on his family's North Carolina tobacco farm and recalls the German soldiers who were prisoners of war who worked on the farm during the war, who appreciated the kindness of Americans. The stories they would tell were always breath-taking and interesting. My mom would always tear up at recalling her beloved brothers and brother-in-law who died too young. The hardships she and her family endured during the war and the bombing of ships in the Clyde River left deep impressions. She remembers hearing the buzz bombs, the food rationing, the oranges at Christmas time, and the blacked-out windows. It was a time when you didn't talk to strangers especially if they were asking for directions. But it was always with pride that the war stories were told to us as children. It was an important part of her life and we knew that we had a more fortunate childhood. We grew up knowing about the Home Guard, Rudolf Hess, what war really meant when war came to your shores. Our parents instilled in us a love of country and respect for the military. Thank you to all the brave soldiers, who have answered the call to serve and protect freedom around the world and who are fighting today. God bless you.