|
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.
She's the USAir pilot who has more combat missions
over Iraq and Saudi Arabia then most of her passengers
have trips; who when she comes on the intercom with
flight information, think she is the flight attendent.
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 or Corpsman 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 and storekeeper 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".
*****************
Observations From a Marine Chaplin
"It is the soldier/sailor, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier/sailor, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier/sailor, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier and the sailor,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protestor to burn the flag."
Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC Chaplin Corps
*****************
As we observe Veteran's Day, here is a
thought stemming from perhaps as far
back as the days of King Solomen, .....
"A person is rich according to what he is,
not according to what he has."
We enjoy a great measure of FREEDOM,
thanks in no small measure, to many men and woman who
gave of themselves, of what they are, so others may be free.
Some have had thier lives drasticly altered in the service of freedom.
Many others made the ultimate sacrifice and gave thier lives.
They leave behind parents, children, and spouses whose sacrifice continues.
Please remember them all in your thoughts, actions, and prayers.
Remember, the ultimate thank you is to use our freedom responsibly
|
|
