I'm Sorry Dad

My father is a veteran from WWII.  He served in the European theater with a group that did surveying and maps.  When I was a kid he never ever talked about the war.  Mom said that he never spoke to her about it either.  In his old age, he's loosened up a bit.  Now he will talk about it if you ask.  However, one day after  my mom had died he told me some absolutely horrible stories, he finished with a tear in his eye and said, "People really don't understand that war is hell."  I thought about the hero's homecoming that awaited the soldiers returning from that war.  I thought about all those years that he kept so much pain inside to protect us and protect mom.  I told him that I was sorry.  I was sorry that he had seen those things and I was sorry that he had had to go in the first place.  He relaxed after that.  All these years and what he really needed was an apology.

He was just a kid.  Thanks, and we're sorry.