WHAT IS A VETERAN?
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb,
a jagged scar, a certain look in their eye.
Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone
together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg, or perhaps another sort of inner
steel; the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.
Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia
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 at 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 others backs.
He is the parade riding Legionaire who pins on his ribbons and
medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and
medals pass by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns,
whose presence at the Arlington
National Cemetery
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 yet extraordinary human being - a person who
sacrificed 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 their's.
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, the 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 rewarded. Two little words that mean a lot "THANK YOU"!
Author
- Father Denis Edward O'Brien USMC
Contributed by Don Warhurst
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