Veterans Day

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.

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 parade-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."
* Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC

It Is The Soldier

It is the Soldier, not the minister

Who has given us freedom of religion.

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 freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer

Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician

Who has given us the right to vote.

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.

KEEPING THE BROKEN PROMISE ALIVE

Where Have All The Flowers Gone
performed by The Kingston Trio
Music for your listening enjoyment only.
If you like the music, support the artist and buy the CD!

poofcat.com