Tude
11-11-02, 06:43 PM
Happy Veterans Day and Happy Marine Corps. Birthday
Just a little late, not running on all eight cyl. but I am okay.
God Bless All
Jimmy/Tude
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." 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
Just a little late, not running on all eight cyl. but I am okay.
God Bless All
Jimmy/Tude
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." 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