Veteran's Day

What is a Veteran?

Attributed to Father Denis Edward O'Brian
Marine Corps chaplain

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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?

A vet 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.

A vet 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.

A vet is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

A vet is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back at all.

A vet is the drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account punks and gang members into marines, airmen, sailors, soldiers and coast guardsmen, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

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

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

A vet 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.

A vet 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.

A vet is an ordinary and yet 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.

A vet is a soldier and a savior and a 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".

To all the veterans on this board (and I include myself in this number), Thank you for your service.

Please, if at all possible, do something to honor the veterans on Friday (and all days). Never forget that without their service and sacrifice, even something as simple as the right to contribute to this board would not be possible.

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God bless them all.

 

For all those who serve with honor and distinction. Thank you.

 

Freedom is not Free

by Ashley Persyn



There is a price we pay for freedom

For it is not truly free

But rather paid for by the contributions of veterans

To buy our liberty



As their blood drains from their body and runs like a river through the grass

Over the years it's forgotten, war is placed in our past

I don't think we all realize the importance veterans play

as they voluntarily serve America each and every day



We should honor the veterans for they act like a shield

Protecting us from danger, keeping America healed.

So if you would take a second to commemorate

You will instantly see

We owe veterans our gratitude

For they are the reason we are free

... Thankyou

 

I will be observing the silence on Armistice day, as I always do. Ive always found it Poiniant
my B'day is armistice day, 11th November . Who knows that world I may (or may not) have been born into with out the sacrifices of so many.

 

That was an awesome post Joe. I'm about to cry, seriously. We have to thank our Vets everyday for risking their lives to protect the ideals of this country, freedom, liberty, tolerance.


Just remember everyone, 11/11 at 11:11am, take a moment of silence, for that was when Armistance Day (what Vet's day was originally called prior to 1946) occured and the end of the first World War.

 

God bless our Vets!

Amen Joe

Enjoy the day!

 

VERY good Post, Joe!

My father is a Vietnam Vet & I have sat with him many days, helping him to cope with his memories as he has helped me to understand why it was so important that Freedom be defended at all times. Against his will, I served in the Army, though was never sent abroad. However I would have gladly performed my duty if I was called upon. Having children of my own, I understand the importance of Freedom. I came accross this poem that I thought expressed my gratitude for the "Unknown Soldier".


Because of You, Unknown Soldier
By Courtney Tanabe


Because of you, I am here
Because of you, I am able to live freely

Yet I do not know you
And I have not done anything for you

But there you stand, ready to fight
And there you are prepared to die

For me

You've fought before
And you'll fight again
For someone you don't know

So thank you Unknown Soldier
Fighting for me

I'm here because of you
And I owe my future to you

 

I think this Poem will be Recited for ever.

The Soldier
by Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave once her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven

 

Thank you to all of our Vets, both American and allied.

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I know it's a day later, but I just read this and had to say Damn Joe, that was just wonderful!

A huge thanks to all our Veterans out there. Not just one Veteran's Day, but every day of the year.