My Uncle Keith was memorialized in a service in Colorado Tuesday. He died July 27 after post-surgical complications.
Here is a nice tribute his family put together:
The Obituary of Retired SFC Keith William Sweetwood
Reading the obit, I was struck by the reference to his wedding to Aunt Linda which was in Elwood, Ill. way back in 1967. My Dad, brother Eric and sister Karen and I all had roles. I had to try and light candles which involved fire and what seemed to be a large crowd. My Dad rescued my attempts, as I recall.
My grandma had earlier chronicled his Vietnam service in a poem, "An Undeclared War" which is somewhere in my vast collection of everything. It was published in the Joliet newspaper and was a pretty good bit of writing. I knew I got it from somewhere...
Three years later after that wedding, my grandma was gone and things were just never the same. Looking back, 1967 seems like such an innocent time. Or maybe I was just a more innocent me.
More later,
Mark
1 comment:
Very sorry to hear about your uncle. That was a nice obit written by his grandson. It's hard to distill someone's life in 500 words or less, don't you think?
Honestly, it was a more innocent you because the late 60's, early 70's was anything but innocent. It was a terrible, dangerous time to be alive. My son suggested to us that we spend our 25th anniversary on a beach in Thailand. I could hardly wrap my mind around it. That's where my friends went to fight and die - southeast Asia, Viet Nam, Thailand, Cambodia. Those that weren't killed came back pretty messed up. Back at home the race riots were going full bore. The Black Panthers were burning everything in sight. And those young soldiers? They didn't dare travel the U.S. in uniform. They were spit upon and worse.
And Ohio? Four dead in O-hio.
Oh, I could write a book.
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