Jay Lloyd's Getaway: Memories Of Military Service

By Jay Lloyd

NEW LONDON, Conn. (CBS) — With Veterans' Day on the horizon, let's take a look at some military getaways into the past.

When I was a kid, just old enough to remember, Dad took the family to West Point to see his World War I billet.  On our visit, things weren't quite the way Dad remembered them.

(Jay Lloyd's father, second from left, with unidentified colleagues. Family photo)

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Many veterans make pilgrimages to countries and towns where they had been stationed.  But for many among the thinning ranks of World War II and Korean War era vets, the journey turns out like Dad's:  things have changed. Landmarks and favorite haunts are gone.

On a buddy trip to New London, Conn. with my friend Richard — a Vietnam-era submarine service vet — (top photo), Richard found much had remained the same.

But my old Coast Guard base had vanished.  So had all my favorite liberty stops.

Another time, on a getaway to my onetime USCG seaplane base in Bermuda, I found it overgrown and abandoned.

(The Bermuda seaplane base, in 1954, where Jay Lloyd served. Photo by Jay Lloyd)

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Now, museums and web sites keep the past alive. But on Veterans' Day, as in years past, we'll think about the buddies we knew and the places we've seen.

And, like Gen. MacArthur, we will return.  It just won't be the same.

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