What is a Veteran?

WHAT IS A VETERAN?

You can't tell a vet just by looking.  So, what is a vet?  A Veteran 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.

... 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.

... the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

... the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.

... 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.

... the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

... the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass by.

... 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.

... 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. 

… and countless other ordinary (yet extraordinary)”everyday people” who offered some of their life's most vital years in the service of their country, and who sacrificed their ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

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"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, USN

Chaplain of Marines

Remember November 11th is Veterans Day.  Two little words mean a lot,

"THANK YOU".