Thanking Native Veterans for their service

By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji — Stands Up For Them)

Perhaps because it is the Memorial Day weekend, this morning I woke up with the bugle call of “reveille” in my mind.

And then I heard the sound of the Boatswain Mate’s whistle echoing through the address system on the ship. “Reveille, Reveille, up all hands. Heave out, trice up. The smoking lamp is lighted in all authorized spaces.”

Reveille and taps were the two bugle calls that introduced us to our lives in the military. Reveille to wake us up and taps to put us to sleep. But taps was also the mournful bugle call we heard at the funerals of our fallen comrades.

It took me back to a time when we were marching in a driving rain on the grinders of the United States Navy Recruit Depot in San Diego. That early winter of 1952 it rained and it rained. Most of the guys in my company wore out at least two pair of boots in the 3 months we marched in that rain.

Our grinder was separated from the grinder of the U.S. Marine Corps Recruitment Center by a tall Euro steel fence. There were days we marched right next to their fence. The Marines were almost always marching in full combat gear with backpacks. We kind of felt sorry for them.

All though the Marines are technically a part of the U. S. Navy and often serve aboard ships at sea there is an almost comedic rivalry between the Marines and the Navy. We make crude jokes about each other.

Read more https://nativesociety.org/thanking-native-veterans-for-their-service