Veterans Day

[davedove]

This Friday, November 11, is Veterans Day in the United States, and in some other countries it is called Remembrance Day. In honor of this special day I am posting the following. It was written for the US Military, but it applies to many others around the world.

What is a Veteran?


Attributed to Father Denis Edward O'Brian
Marine Corps chaplain

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them, a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking. What is a vet?

• A vet is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.
• A vet is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th Parallel.
• A vet is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
• A vet is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back at all.
• A vet is the drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account punks and gang members into marines, airmen, sailors, soldiers and coast guardsmen, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.
• A vet is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
• A vet is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
• A vet is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the ArlingtonNationalCemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.
• A vet is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
• A vet is an ordinary and yet extraordinary human being, a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
• A vet is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more that the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say, "Thank You." That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".


To all the veterans on this board (and I include myself in this number) Thanks for your service. To those who were under fire my special thanks. And to those who are currently serving (including my brother in the US Army), I'm behind you and my prayers are with you.

Please, if at all possible, do something to honor the veterans on Friday (and all days). Never forget that without their service and sacrifice, even something as simple as the right to contribute to this board would not be possible.

[Southern Breeze]

Thanks for the post.I'll second it.

[Mike n NC]

This long haired old man had to go in town (kilted as usual) yesterday to collect for some work I have been doing for one of the local shops. I intentionally went the long-way round to avoid the traffic from the (we do it a week early here) parade. As luck would have it, the parade was still going on as I left the shop but I was asked by a lady "were you part of the parade?". No I explained to the chuckles and snickers of a couple of young Marines standing nearby. Hearing their laughter prompted me to go on to say, "I don't want to detract from the heros in the parade, I had my parade in 1991 when I got back from Iraq on the first go round. It was great, a parade and shortly afterward my retirement and ever so much better than being spat on during Viet Nam". The youngsters left with their heads a little lower than they had been.

Shortly after that I took my wife to buy an American Defense Ribbon with a bronze star so that she could display it on her name tag during her school's vet spirit week. (she is a teacher) As we purchased it I explained to her the significance of the star, an additional war or act of combat, and it caused me to pause for a minute and remember being in the Military during Viet Nam...A pretty thankless task.

Then I thought about the homecoming we got when we returned from Desert Storm, a whole different ballgame...

What is the purpose of all this rambling? Other than an old man sharing memories I guess the first would be you truly can't tell a vet by the way they look. Second, I guess would be that the thank yous mean so very, very much.

My Dad is 84, a surviving member of the generation that fought WWII and still gets a smile every time someone thanks him for it.

Mike, a bit battlescared but not bitter :smile:

Another thought just came to me so a PS is in order. A lot of the young men I cross paths with every day, I'm talking 19, 20 and 21, are getting ready to leave for their 2nd or 3rd tour. I hate it for them, wish it were me instead but as I was told by a young Marine some time ago, "you rest, it's our turn to serve you now". Out of the mouths of babes...

[AckZel]

In Finland we have national veteran day 27th April. The day when Lapland War ended (1945). Guns silenced and Finland exited WWII for good.

Other day we have if the day of the fallen. It is 3rd sunday of May. Connects to the day our independence war (civil war) ended. (16.5.1918 The official day it ended. Some local small scale battles around after that, that's why the day of fallen is not on exact date)

[GMan]

Well said Dave. Often times we do forget such things and get wrapped up in life, and forget the true meaning.

[starbkjrus]

I can't say much here as I was born in between. I'm crying just now.

Thanks to all...