For the Cummings boys of Pickens County, Alabama, there is more than one Veterans Day.

There is, of course, the official federal holiday set aside to honor or military men and women. The other “veterans day” is any day the brothers get together. Beginning with Al Cummings, 90 of Columbus, all seven of the Cummings brothers served in our armed forces. Like Al, Richard, 89, and Ben, 87, saw combat in World War II. Four more — Marlin (deceased), Thomas (84), Jerry (77) and Ronnie (70) — also served in the military. The brothers followed in the footsteps of their father, who served in the Army during World War I, but was never sent to Europe.

Among them, the Cummings served in four branches of the military (Al, Marlin and Ronnie in the Army, Richard and Jerry in the Marines, Thomas in the Air Force and Ben in the Navy).

“I’m not sure why all of us wound up in the military, but I’m proud we did,” says Al, the first of the brothers to serve.

At age 20, Al hit Utah Beach in Normandy, France, on June 11, 1944, as part of the Ninth Cavalry’s relief forces replacing those who landed in D-Day. He fought his way “halfway across France,” before being seriously wounded by machine gun fire.

“I could see the machine gun,” Al recalls. “He just got me before I could get him. The bullet hit me in the side and came out through my back. It barely missed my kidney, but even so, I almost died anyway. I lost a lot of blood. I was in a coma for five days. When I came to, one of the doctors told me, ‘You know, you’re not really supposed to be alive.'”

After 17 days in a field hospital in France, Al spent three months in an English hospital before being sent home.

“They sent me to Camp McClain in Grenada, one of the camps where they kept Germans prisoners of war,” Al says, laughing at the thought that he would ultimately see far more Germans in Mississippi than he ever did in his three months on the European front.

While Al was fighting in Europe, brothers Richard and Ben were fighting the Japanese in the Pacific.

“I don’t really care to talk about it,” says Richard, who fought with the Marines in the Pacific for 17 months. “I’m just that way.”

While the brothers who fought in World War II dismiss the idea that their service inspired their younger siblings to serve, Jerry says there was definitely an impact.

“You know how it is with older brothers, you look up to them,” says Jerry, who served in the Marines in the mid-1950s. “It did influence us a little bit, I’m thinking.”

When it came time which branch of service to join, Jerry said he didn’t choose based on his brothers’ service.

“I went with the Marines because they’re always the first in and first out,” he says.

While the older and younger brothers disagree on that topic, they are in agreement on one thing: The older brothers offered no advice.

“What can you tell them?” Al said.

“About all you need to know is how to dig a hole and get in it,” he added, laughing.

“I wouldn’t give them any advice,” Richard says. “It might be the wrong advice. Better to let them figure it out for themselves.”

The brothers remain close. Richard, Jerry and Ronnie still live in nearby Alabama. Ben lives in Memphis and Thomas lives in the Dallas area.

“We don’t talk much about the service when we get together, though,” Jerry says. “It’s been a lot of years, you know. There are other things to talk about, I guess.”

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].