Veterans Day

After some somewhat gentle reminders and nudges this blog seemed to be calling again. (Thanks Ron!) And there was this nagging post that has been wanting to get out in words and no better time than now I suppose.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Most of you know my son is in the army and my youngest daughter is in the navy. My nephew is in the air force... Cassie's ex-fiance is in marine boot camp at the moment..(so I'll be taking over the world soon.. muu- aah-aah-aah!!!) Oh..sorry..focus..

These kids are just the newest generation of so many that have gone before them. And seeing how young a graduating class of recruits are I'm sure older veterans see much younger faces in the crowds than when they were in. Surely they're bringing them in younger each year! ;)

Each generation joins for different reasons. Sometimes the economy is not so good and the military seems a safe and structured "job" during peacetime or otherwise. The promise of college being paid for is a strong incentive but certainly not the only reason for enlisting.

Going backwards in time to the waves of soldiers that invested their lives for their country all had different reasons. Individual and unselfish reasons for joining the ranks. Ask any soldier, they didn't do it for the money. Of course we could re-hash old wounds here about all the different wars. Was each war really worth it? It all seemed a good idea at the time but so much went on behind closed doors I doubt anyone will ever have all the answers to satisfy the ones who would like to blame specific individuals for each war or conflict or "police action". And I did not pay attention to this section of history in school (was probably drawing during class) so I won't pretend to be any sort of historian.

Peace and passivity are wonderful attributes. But what if all the countries and governments had kept that attitude when Hitler was rounding up Jews and invading and taking over countries in Europe during WWII? And The Great War? Wow! If that one had not turned out the way it did the world would be a completely different place! And the Civil War? The United States would not be united most likely. The Revolutionary War? The British are very nice people but ..well, we've always not liked to be told what to do. That's kind of in our nature :)

So people can bash every war, picking it apart like a carcass trying to find blame and point bony fingers of "It's his fault!" or "What were they thinking?" or "If no one picked up a gun, no one would get hurt!" But it has happened over and over throughout history, for better or worse. It's hard to hear that war actually can make things better but face it. Things could've turned out so much worse had young soldiers kept the peaceful and passive attitude that we'd all like to see the world in.

At work my store gives military discounts to soldiers and veterans. 10% off isn't much but it means something to be acknowledged. A couple of weeks ago a veteran came in and asked for his military discount but he had forgot his card. He also had 100% disabled veteran tax exemption so I said sure and gave it to him. He said "I worked very hard for that card." I said I'll bet you did and asked what war he served in. He told me he was in Vietnam and spent 2 years in a POW camp. Now it's not easy for soldiers to talk about the past like that so I knew to tread lightly as I coaxed his story out little by little. He said he was in a camp with many other soldiers like him and they beat him everyday for 2 years. I asked him what it was like when he got to come home and he said when he stepped off the plane he was spit upon by demonstrators. He had pain in his eyes as he was telling me this but said it all in a matter-of-fact voice like it was just something that happened. I asked if he had grandkids and did they know he went through all that? He said, "Oh no, this generation wouldn't understand." I said, "You should tell them. They need to know."

The line was getting long and reluctantly we had to say good bye. I shook his hand very firmly and looked him in the eye and said, "Thank you!" and he knew I didn't mean for shopping at Lowes. He smiled very big and left.

I love hearing about projects people do when they record stories of veterans. Their stories are only known to them and it's a great loss to all when we really don't know what veterans have gone through so we can demonstrate. I hope that veteran will tell his grandkids about it. He might be surprised at this new generation of soldiers. At least the ones I know are pretty bad-ass!

Just don't ever spit on a soldier. A hand shake and "Thank you" will do quite nice.