My father passed away two years ago at age 86. He served in the military for six years in the 1950s and was buried with full military honors.
Although my father occasionally told stories about his time in service, he never went into great detail about it, and he kept no documents from that time.
It wasn’t until about 25 years ago that my siblings and I learned my father had a child, later given up for adoption, while stationed in England.
This was before he married my mother, and this knowledge came to the surface only when my half sister reached out to find her birth parents.