Veterans Day is a day ignored by many, and it
should have more media focus than it currently has.
However, we can make a difference by following
your suggestion; simply thank a veteran for his or her bravery.
I am certainly grateful to the men and women who
have put themselves in mortal danger to protect the
freedoms our country stands for. I also think
it is shameful when those freedoms that were so hard won
are taken away by those who have dodged drafts
and gone AWOL from the military.
The Veteran
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 Parris Island 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 par! ade-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 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."
It's the soldier, not the reporter,
Who gave us our freedom of the press.
It's the soldier, not the poet,
Who gave us our freedom of speech.
It's the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who gave us our freedom to demonstrate.
It's the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves others with respect for the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.