Veterans Day

[keggerz]

Thank you

[driveby]

 

[T_bone65]

 

Thank all of you, each and every one

[loaf]

[buddahj]

For all of you that have served or are serving our country in the armed forces, thank you.

[WaterMan]

Free food at Apple Bee's for Veterans.

[buddahj]

I know this was posted before, but I figured it was appropriate.

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 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 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."

 

"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."

 

Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC

[Jimmy Neutron]

I am very grateful for those that serve(d) in the military. That uncomforatble lump rises in my throat when I see those pics of guys/gals at Walter Reed or the WWII vets in 4th of July parades missing limbs. These people did not suffer some tragic accident - they put their butts on the line to protect our way of life for very little monetary return.

 

I am grateful for my dad's service in Viet Nam and my grandpa's service in the Pacific in WWII and their quiet dignity and examples they have been to me as long as I have known them. In my mind, guys like my dad and grandpa are tougher than Butkus and braver than Rudy. My dad brought home a lot of physical scars and nightmares from 'Nam. Grandpa came home a different man - crass and hard on the outside, but still a hugh softy for children and his war buddies. Watching his buddies salute him one last time at his burial with tears in their eyes was perhaps the most touching thing I have ever witnessed.

 

And some gave all.

 

Pardon the self quote/repost, but I thought this belongs in this thread too.

[nuke'em ttg]

 

[Chargerz]

My thanks to all the veterans in this country.

[BeeR]

I'm a vet but never saw combat or "danger zones" - while I'm proud of my service, guys like those mentioned above are a whole other level from those like me. Thx to them. They walked the talk and are the "real" warriors IMO.