Veterans I admire

[Ayin McFye]

I agree to all that has been said. Thank you very much Veterans for all the sacrifice and hard work you do or did.

I shall raise a pint to you all this evening. int:

[Fedgunner]

When I read the title to this thread my first though went to a "Big Gun" Chuck Yeager. After reading a bit, my scope narrowed a wee bit. I thought of my Father. He was assigned as a corporal to a brand new thing in Korea. Radar guided artillery counter battery. For those not up on all things military, they used radar to detect incomming shells and directed our big guns on the reverse trajectory.

Another thought went to a name I didn't know. The pbi in Iraq or Bosnia, or Afganastan, or where ever, that uses his own body to shield a buddy, a child, or a civillan from incomming fire.

Those are my heroes.

It happens every day. We never see it or hear about it, but the soldiers, sailors, marines and air men are in fact heroes.

[The Celtic Gypsy]

My father was a WWII Navy vet. He served on a LST in the north Atlantic. His ship took the troops across the English Channel and brought the wounded, the dead and the captured back. For many years he really told us little about his service. When he was in his 60's he began to talk to my brothers about his experiences and then he opened up to my sister and I. One of the things I remember him telling us was that because he could speak German, he was often called to the radio room to translate messages and possibly get a position on ships or troops. He was also used to help with the interrogation of the German POW's on board ship. What we did not know until his death, that he had received a special commendation for this.

My youngest bother so admired him, that from a very early age told us he would join the Navy. He proudly served for 8 years. My middle brother also served, in the Air Force and then in the Air National Guard with a short stint in Iraq before he retired. Three veterans I greatly admire.

[davedove]

A tribute to all the unsung heroes out there:

What is a Vet?

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?

He 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. He 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.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery 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.

He 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.

He is an ordinary and yet an 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.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than 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"

Author Unknown

[Livingston]

My family has a long history of service to this country. One ancestor was with the Green Mountain Boys during the war of independence, two were involved with writing/signing the Decleration of Independence. Several were in the Civil War. My Grandfather was on a destroyer in the Atlantic in WW1 and CPO at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in WWII. My Uncle flew off carriers in the Pacific and is credited with being the 1st US pilot to fly over mainland China after the Japanese captured it. He also got the Navy Cross for another mission. A cousin was a casulty in Viet Nam.

I currently work with one recent vetern, 3 in departments near me and we had one on our team that fly spotters in Viet Nam who has since retired.

[Archangel]

What is pbi?

[macwilkin]

What is pbi?

Puir bluidy Infantry?

T.

[macwilkin]

Back in 1998, I had the honour of reading the following poem at the funeral of a good friend, Sgt. Harry L. Reseinleiter, who jumped with the 508th Parachute Infantry Regt., 82nd Airborne Division on D-Day. Lee was interviewed for Stephen Ambrose's D-Day, and only a small portion of his version of the Normandy drop made to publication.

When I lost my grandfather back in 2005, who served in China & India with the 14th Air Force, I thought of this poem again.

For Lee & Charles: Lest we forget.


JUST A COMMON SOLDIER

(A Soldier Died Today)

by A. Lawrence Vaincourt

He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past.
Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, every one.

And tho' sometimes, to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,
All his Legion buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke.
But we'll hear his tales no longer for old Bill has passed away,
And the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today.

He will not be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,
For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life.
Held a job and raised a family, quietly going his own way,
And the world won't note his passing, though a soldier died today.

When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.
Papers tell their whole life stories, from the time that they were young,
But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.

Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land
A guy who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow who, in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life?

A politician's stipend and the style in which he lives
Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives.
While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal and perhaps, a pension small.

It's so easy to forget them for it was so long ago,
That the old Bills of our Country went to battle, but we know
It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom that our Country now enjoys.

Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,
Would you want a politician with his ever-shifting stand?
Or would you prefer a soldier, who has sworn to defend
His home, his kin and Country and would fight until the end?

He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us we may need his like again.
For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part
Is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.

If we cannot do him honor while he's here to hear the praise,
Then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days.
Perhaps just a simple headline in a paper that would say,
Our Country is in mourning, for a soldier died today.

-- http://www.vaincourt.homestead.com/Common_Soldier.html

[James MacMillan]

These are not my words, and I hope I don't butcher them up too badly - but:

A veteran is a man who has written a blank check to his government for any amount, up to and including his life!