Who are veterans? Where do they come from? A dictionary says a
veteran is a person who has been in the Armed Forces. But is that simple? I
say NO it isn't!! I look at our flag to find the answer.
The RED Stripes stand for the
courage and blood shed by the millions of our veterans protecting our country,
our flag, and others' freedom. The WHITE
Stripes stands for loyalty to our country, family, friends, and
their fellow veterans. The BLUE field with 50 white
stars on it, I see 50 states formed into a union. Where all veterans come
from; the rich and poor, all races, religions, and creeds.
Furthermore, I see people who develop a special bond that ignores any
barriers. A bond that lasts a life time and is thicker than water. A bond that
only other veterans can understand. A taste of freedom that is only felt when
the sacrifices were made.
These pages are created to give honor to all past, present, and future
veterans who answered the call. Now, as you visit these pages please take the
time to reflect and remember all who made the ultimate sacrifices in order to
give us the freedoms we take for granted.
Here is how someone else defines what a veteran is.
What is a Vet?
by Bob Jack
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 wished 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 this 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.
found on The Korean War Verterans Association web Site" |
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