Ben Channels Grandpa / Judy

Today one of the kids at PCPA had a USO party and everybody dressed up like the 40's. Ben wore his khaki pants, and I found an Army shirt and tie at the Army/Navy store. Then he went up into the attic and found Grandpa's uniforms, and that's what he wore to the party. It was pretty amazing that he could fit into the jacket and the hat, but he let everybody know how authentic they were. I guess the only anomaly was his beard, which he's growing for Les Mis. Here (and below) he is with his friend Brianna.  

Notice the ribbons on the jacket: the blue one on top is the combat infantry badge (given only after being in combat), below that on the right is the WWII service ribbon, and on the left is the purple heart. 

At the party they played Glenn Miller and Big Band CDs, which Ben brought, and he says because he knows how to swing dance, he danced with everybody and it was great.

When he was trying everything on a couple nights ago, he was showing Granpa and it was really quite moving. Then Ben added to the feeling when he said, "Grandpa, I'm so grateful that you were willing to go through all this for us, so now I don't have to go to war myself."

When Ben came home, he told Grandpa that his uniform had a few more hours of really fun dancing.