Posted on 11/11/2013 11:32:17 AM PST by virgil283
"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 outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the38th 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 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 slows 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 mean a lot, “THANK YOU.”
“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.”
From one vet to all of you others.....THANK YOU.......
God and Soldier, all men adore! In time of danger, and not before. When the danger has passed, And all things righted, God is forgotten, And the Soldier is slighted! Anon
Thank you for the posting and your service, if you served! Thank you nonetheless.
And thank you as well.
Msgt, US Air Force, Retired. 1967-1987.
Our local radio station (WEEU AM) asked are we (the US) doing enough for our Veterans. I replied that #1 I don’t speak for all veterans #2 I got enough assistance in my lifetime (college, a couple of times help from the VA) and what do they mean by ‘enough’? I then thanked the audience and the US for giving me the opportunity to serve because it made me a man, educated me and gave me the chance to become a productive citizen and, eventually rich (relatively). The f’ing government don’t owe me NOTHING and I ain’t taking it.
The young man in desert camo with his civilian attired friends walked into the restaurant and sat down at a table. It seemed like it was going to take them forever to get served. So I got up walked over and said “You look kind of dusty there, brother, let me get you guys some service”. I knew he had just come from the land of odd and all the staff soon did too. I’m sure all the guys there thought I owned the place, well I sure did that day. Welcome home.
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