Peace Be To All Who Read This,
Ladies & Gentlemen, obviously this “thread/subject” is a sensitive topic....hence the numerous and varied replies on the matter. It is good and right that this topic invokes feelings, varied & many, from each person that reads these posts regardless of one’s origin or race or creed.
Veteran’s Day is what it is called in America. In other nations, when they honor (in their way) their nation’s military personnel, it may be called something else.....the point is, just what “IS” a Veteran?
That question is what the topic of conversation is really about (i.e. - Veteran’s Day Wish) and seems to be getting lost in all of this emotional discourse. I respectfully submit for your review a bit of information that, in my humble opinion, may help provide some answers (if given the proper amount of soul-searching reflection and meditation upon said subject).
Please read and feel free to substitute any legitimate nation of choice wherever the word “America” or “American” is found within the text:
What is a Veteran?
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, the 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."
author- Father Denis Edward O'Brien
USMC
Normally, I try to contain myself on these types of issues as emotions can get entirely out-or-hand in a group discourse such as this forum. I suggest if you want to see evidence of a true patriotic veteran (that has been to hell-n-back) contributing to all facets of society......look no further than the list’s own Col. Dave Hughes (yeah, that’s right, the gentleman that just returned from Mt. Everest)....I challenge anyone to find a better man or example of what a “Veteran Is”.
Submitted Respectfully,
George M. Walden
Vice President
GC3/InterLink L.C.
319-524-2895 office
319-524-3175 fax
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
member: Wireless Communications Association International
"@anywhere... when it absolutely, positively has to be deployed overnight"
on 11/12/03 7:01 PM, Sevak Avakians at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Carl,<snip>
Which fact that I layed out is incorrect? Please feel free to point them out.
Regarding your statement "And what about the South African's who died fighting "Communism" on behalf of the american people.", which part of my statement denies the role of any other people in their fight for democracy?
For the record, my statements (or my anger) were directed at someone who started their email with "America would get on better if". Given the subject matter and the way this email was written, in my opinion, is offensive.
Again, for the record, I have not dismissed all the other veterans of all these wars that fought for democracy. Clearly I believe they're contributions are equally important. This is my point! Perhaps in either my email or in your interpretation, this message was lost. Yes, all the Allied Forces have sacrificed. Who would deny this? I even said this in my email: "...for us Americans, Veteran's day is to remember all veterans that fought..."
If you or anyone else would like to discuss this further, please let's do this off-list since it is not appropriate here.
Kind regards,
Sevak Avakians
