The men around the table told stories.
Lieutenant Commander Whitfield told Caleb about Danny at field medical training. About how Danny could start an IV faster than anyone in their class. About how he’d sneak extra candy bars
into his medical bag for the Marines.
An old Marine with a cane told Caleb about Hue City in 1968.
A Coast Guard pilot told him about rescuing a family from a sinking boat off Cape Hatteras.
A man who’d never served a day in his life, a lawyer in a very expensive suit, told Caleb that his own father had died when he was seven, and that his grandfather took him to every father-son event for the rest of his childhood.
“He was eighty-four at my high school graduation,” the lawyer said. “He wore his best suit. He
cried the whole time.”
He looked at me.
“I didn’t know how lucky I was,” he said. “Until right now.”
