>>> 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 or corpsman 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, Sailor or Airman, 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".>> >
>> > Remember November 11th is Veterans Day>> >
>> > "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 protestor to burn the flag.">> >
>> > Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC>> >>> >>>>>>
In honor of my Dad (WWII), my Step-Dad (WWI), my older brothers (Korea, Vietnam), my eldest son (Iraqi Freedom).
-- Budd Cochran