Veterans Day
to this writer is more than a day off from work, or the opportunity to hear the
same old rhetoric from some politician who espouses veteran issues but
continually does little to address the issues they in fact claim to champion.
Veterans Day
is in fact a special day that I take serious and display that seriousness in my
thoughts, prayers and actions. You ask, why Veterans Day is so special to me. You
see, I share a common bond with veterans both living and dead. As a retired
veteran, I appreciate the sacrifice they made. For this reason I will always
embrace our veterans with more than a nod and lip service.
Come with
me, if you will, let us take part in an American Veteran’s journey through
time. Let us experience some of the trials they endured when called upon. Most
of us, if not all of us can only imagine what horrors our “Doughboys” faced in
the “War to End All Wars.” The
numbers tell the tale. In four years more than 10 million soldiers would die on
the battlefields of Europe. Among them are 50,000 American veterans. These 50,000 die in only 7 months.
Two decades
later, my father would be part of a first wave that would assault a beach
protected by tens of thousands of land mines, beach obstacles and high ground
that was fortified by a well-armed and prepared adversary. Two thousand
American Veterans would pay the ultimate sacrifice on that 2 mile wide beach
code named, “Omaha.” World War II would result in the deaths of 405,000 American Military members.
Within a
decade of World War II’s conclusion, Americans Veterans would find themselves
enduring not only a merciless enemy but the harshest of winters in a most
desolate of lands. This war, the Korean War or “The Forgotten War,” would find our veterans standing steadfast in
the face of human wave after wave while at the same time braving the elements.
Fifty thousand veterans would perish in a most inhospitable and hostile land.
The next war
is the story about time and memories. It was the year I became an Airborne
Infantry soldier, it was the year I became a veteran. The time was 1965, a
different kind of year, a water shed year when one era was ending in America
and another beginning. It was the year that America decided to intervene in the
affairs of obscure and distant Vietnam.
It was yet another year in which the American veteran would again go to war. In
the broad, traditional sense, that “we” who went to war was all of us, all
Americans, though in truth at that time the larger majority had little
knowledge of, less interest in, and no great concern for what was beginning so
far away. For ten years our soldiers, your veterans, would stand tall in the
Central Highlands, the Citadels of Hue, the hills surrounding Khe Sanh and the battles
for the towns and cities of South Vietnam during the Tet Offensive of 1968. While our
veterans were doing the honorable thing, many people at home were doing the
dishonorable thing. Through it all, the veterans, our veterans continued to
march the honorable route. Fifty-eight thousand would die on the battlefields
of Vietnam.
The 1990’s
would have us travel roads that veterans like myself are all too familiar with.
First there was “Desert Storm”;
America’s veterans liberated Kuwait. Next came the “Battle of Mogadishu”; America’s veterans fought, rescued and
extracted Task Force Ranger survivors. Next came the invasion of Haiti, again our veterans came through.
They restored order in a very short time with little loss of life.
The new
centennial brought with it and continues to bring more conflicts, deeper
ideological divisions and radical fundamentalism. Veterans brought temporary
stability to Iraq by toppling a tyrant who outwardly supported terrorism. Our
veterans continue fighting and serving on ground in Afghanistan, Iraq, West Africa and in the skies over Syria and elsewhere around
the globe. Our veterans are Citizen Soldiers, (Guardsman and
Reservists). They are Professional Soldiers. They are America’s Veterans. They
are America’s Patriots. Without the Veteran there is no America.
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