Dad, 1943 and Mom, Dad, & Charlen 1944

To the photo above, Dan penned, "1943, Dad as U.S. Marine at 179 Chestnut Avenue [in San Gabriel, CA]."  Find its location here: 

Dan posted this on his Facebook page on November 11, 2019, in celebration of Veteran's Day.  And though I get the nationalist love of country and the different epochs that define a country, I cringe when I hear the phrase "Thank you for your service."  I can't imagine any veteran expecting to be thanked.  That kind of takes away from the self-sacrifice of service.  And certainly, I don't know of any specific benefit to the person doing the thanking that WWII provided.  Freedom?  From whom?  After WWII, Nazis, and Communists both infiltrated the U.S. government bureaus.  People like to cite the fact that we're speaking English instead of German or Japanese or Russian.  I guess it would offend too much to tell soldiers and veterans that they were lied to.  Though you certainly hear veterans protest against future wars and protest the services they get as veterans from the Veteran's Administration.  So I don't know.  Mixed signals, I guess.  Anyway, Dad looks proud and ready to join the Marines and excited about the transformation the uniform has on him even though it requires him to be away from his wife, Sally, and daughter, Charlen whom you can see below.  Charlen looks almost a year old here, so the year could be 1944 with Dad on leave.