If you like your freedoms, Thank a Veteran
Posted By Kathleen David on November 11, 2007
Today is Veteran’s Day.
I know a number of people who have served in the military formally or informally by being the family member of military personnel.
The old Veteran I know served in World War II. He was in a bomber that made runs over Italy. He was shot at more than once. He made it back. A number of his friends didn’t.
I have known a number of people who served in Korea and Vietnam. I met someone this summer who is a writer and we talked about how he was treated when he came back after serving his tour. He told me that one of the things that hurt the most was that no one ever said Thank You to him for serving his country. I shook his hand and said Thank you. Because these people were put in an impossible situation and all they wanted to do was serve their country.
When I was working at Del Rey I worked with a number of authors who had served in the military. One told me that he liked working with me because I respectful of what he had done rather than try to explain to him why military is bad (which apparently happened a couple of times during his career).
I had friends go off in Desert Storm. I watched the lives of some of my peers go totally haywire because of it. A couple didn’t make it back at all. But I respected them for doing something I knew I couldn’t do.
Now we have people coming back from the Middle East. I have talked to mothers my age who’s sons and daughters came home in a coffin. I have had friends count down the days until their loved ones would come home only to have the tour extended and the worry go on. I got to talk to someone I know who came back recently. They said that they liked talking to me because I wasn’t judging them or trying to tell them that I was not judging them. I was just letting them be them. She said it was an amazing experience and where she would not have chosen to go, she was glad that she was ordered to.
So go and shake a Veteran’s hand and say thank you for what you did for your country.
I am grateful to all Veterans.
My grandfather served in both WWI and WWII. My great-uncle was there at Iwo Jima. We lost Uncle Lawrie, MIA, in WWII. My Uncle served in Korea during the 60’s, where he had to be honorably discharged with a purple heart. My old neighbor was in Vietnam, and preferred not to talk about it. My cousins entered the service in the 80’s & 90’s for the wrong reasons (from teen rebellion to a desire to shoot things), but it matured them.
Perhaps the most touching thing was after my Uncle died at the age of 55 – of a rare cancer, most likely due to chemicals he was exposed to in the service. In the Memorial Day parade, the Veteran’s Group had float for those Veterans who had passed that year, and my uncle was one of just two listed on the side. It was sad but sweet.
It is not sad enough what some of these men – not always voluntarily – went through on the battlefields, but the real sadness begins with how we treat them on return. The payments and medical care offered to Vets is shameful and inadequate at best, horrific at its worst. We support our police and firefighters with huge outpourings of solidarity every time one falls; the vets, whose lives are on the line far more intensively, deserve no less.
You’re welcome.
I almost forgot Veterans’ Day – i’m so embarrassed.
Did you know that vets, who represent about 11% of the population as a whole, comprise abour 26% of the homeless? And that vets from the two Bushes’ Gulf adventures are disproportionatley represented in *that* number?
No-one shot at me in Viet Nam, but still… i weep for my brothers.
I did a blog post about Veterans’ Day on MOG, themusic-oriented site where i hang out: http://mog.com/fairportfan/blog_post/124146