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United States Pilots Association |
I’m thankful that my home town, Branson, MO, has seen fit to honor veterans in a big way on and around Veterans’ Day each year. It always brings back memories of the day I marched in the Veterans’ Day Parade in downtown St. Louis as a 17 year old Woman Marine Reservist.
Now, as then, I don’t have words to properly describe how I feel about the value of our military service personnel, of both yesterday and today. But this passage written by Navy Chaplin Denis Edward O’Brien says it in a powerful way.
“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 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 teenagers 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 lies 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 than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.”
To me, a veteran is also the Reservist of yesterday and today who spent/spends his/her weekends preparing to go and serve when called.
Enjoy your holiday. And to all you veterans and families of veterans, I say a heartfelt “Thank You” for keeping our country free.
Jan Hoynacki, Executive Director
United States Pilots Association