Interviewed by:

Cam Hull and Nick Dadoly

"I still had something to give."

~ David Eastman (07:48)

David Eastman's Story:

David Eastman grew up in Falmouth Massachusetts with his two parents and brother. The Eastman's were just like any other Cape Cod family, living at the beach in the summer and doing everything possible to get by in the winter. No relatives of David's were involved in the military so most of his inspiration came from his patriotic brother who decided to enroll after he graduated high school two years before his younger brother, David. David and a few other men from his high school all decided to enroll in the Navy the summer after they graduated high school in 1965. They left the Cape that summer to begin basic training for the Navy and then that fall David was deployed on the USS Miller that served as a blue-water naval ship which sailed from the U.S to places such as Vietnam or Hong Kong while David was aboard. He served on the Bennington for quite some time sailing to ports all over the place such as the Philippines and China or maybe even anchoring far offshore the Vietnam soil acting as communication support for the troops in combat. After David served his 32 years in the Navy he was honorably discharged and earned many prized medals for his relentless effort and years of hard work and dedication to his craft. Although he'd left the Navy, he felt that he had more left in the tank and felt that he had much more to give back to his country, so he joined the Air Force in the same year. In the Air Force, David acted as an E6 Technical Sergeant where he didn't do any active combat and for most of the time just remained on a ship named the USS Bennington, a CV-20 air craft carrier. After ten years in the Air Force David finally felt he'd given all that he had and decided to retire from the military, this time for good. David's wife and kids lived on Cape Cod throughout his whole military career and that's just where he wanted to return to. He now lives in West Dennis with his wife and is semi-retired but still paints for people.