Ric
11-11-2008, 09:10 AM
What is a Veteran ?
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 alloy 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 out weighed 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 savior and 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".
Remember Veterans Day
"It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to
demonstrate.
It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the
flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows the protester to burn the flag."
--Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC
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 alloy 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 out weighed 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 savior and 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".
Remember Veterans Day
"It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to
demonstrate.
It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the
flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows the protester to burn the flag."
--Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC