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 died 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, 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.
İFather
Denis Edward O'Brien |
