“Who is a Veteran?”
He is a son, or a father, or a grandfather and all the grandfathers before him who have served our country in peacetime and in war.
She is a daughter, or a mother, or a grandmother and all of the grandmothers before her who have served our country in peacetime and in war.
She is the nurse who held back her tears and smiled at the soldier who had his leg blown off and cried himself to sleep in a tent somewhere in hell.
He is the man wearing the Purple Heart who has just returned from two tours of duty in the Middle East and has yet to see his 25th birthday.
He might be the barroom loudmouth, whose frat boy behavior is far outweighed on the cosmic scales by hours of extraordinary courage under fire in a Vietnam jungle.
He is the prisoner of war who went away one person and returned another, or he did not come back at all. (There are still 90,000 MIA’s from Korean and Vietnam wars.)
He is the hard-as-nails drill instructor that has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, clueless kids into Marines.
He is the cop on the beat and the firefighter on the truck who learned the meaning of “serve and protect” on battlefields in foreign countries.
He marches in parades wearing his ribbons and medals on his chest, carrying the words
“duty, honor, country” in his heart.
He is the quartermaster and the cook, the clerk and the barber who will watch the medals and the ribbons pass them by.
He is the elderly guy in the checkout lane at the supermarket, shoulders now somewhat stooped, whose wife looks at him and still sees the handsome young man in uniform that she married so many years ago.
He is an ordinary guy and yet an extraordinary human being, a person who served some of life’s most vital years in the service of his country and sacrificed his own ambition so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He represents the anonymous heroes in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at Arlington Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor died unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean depths.
From Valley Forge to Gettysburg, to the fields of France to World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Bosnia and the Middle East, he is a soldier and a patriot, a guardian of liberty and a sword against darkness. He is the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
Thank you from the heart, veterans. We will not forget you, not ever.
Ruth B. Williams |
