WHAT IS A VETERAN?
Posted by: bigguyhereagain <bigguyhereagain@...>
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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".
Have a Blessed Day
Dave and Barbara
Necessary Legal Information
I do not mail clean-hewmor unsolicited. If you are receiving this newsletter from me it's because you have subscribed to this mailing list. If you receive this newsletter and are not a subscriber then someone, other than me, has forwarded it to you.
Normal Subscribe: clean-hewmor-subscribe@welovegod.org
Normal Unsubscribe: clean-hewmor-unsubscribe@welovegod.org
Web Subscribe: clean-hewmor-allow-subscribe@welovegod.org
Web Unsubscribe: clean-hewmor-allow-unsubscribe@welovegod.org
Email Group Owner: clean-hewmor-owner@welovegod.org