Veteran's Day

[Mike_Dumond]

Veteran\'s Day

Veterans Day is always a solemn occasion to reflect on and to show our gratitude for those who have fought to preserve the freedoms all Americans enjoy today.

This day was established after World War I to pay tribute to those who served in that Great War. In 1954, the day's significance was expanded to honor all the soldiers, Sailors, airmen, Marines, Coastguardsmen, and merchant marines who have worn our nation's uniform. By pausing to remember, we recognize the many diverse and difficult circumstances that our veterans have faced. However, no matter what the time or the uniform, they are united by the same ideals: life and liberty, peace and prosperity, service and sacrifice.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Hi mike
Here in Austalia we have the same. I am no expert on this matter but we call it remembrance day. On this day 11/11 at 11am the nation stops for a minutes silence reflecting on the lives lost at war. this time and date marks the end off world war 1

 

[Boondox]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Mike -- Thanks. What a difference a few decades makes! It was tough coming home from SE Asia in the 70s to the protests and accusations...

Vin -- I'll always have a special place in my heart for Aussies. My ship pulled into an Australian port on an anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea. Never been treated better in my life! Thanks!

Pete

 

[BB_TX]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Amen to honoring our veterans. I have always felt nothing but respect for those who served.
But until I saw the movies "Saving Private Ryan", "Band Of Brothers", and "We Were Soldiers" and hearing the comments of the veterans saying "yes that's how it was", I did not fully realize how much those guys had to endure.
I was drafted and put on a bus headed for Fort Bliss during the hot years of Viet Nam. But was sent back home because of heart murmur. I often wonder what kind of person I would be today if I had gone. A good friend came back a completely different person. Only now can I understand what he must have experienced.
I fly my flag proudly for all of you.

 

[n6ckv]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Found on another news group

WHAT IS A VET?

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: a soul forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept
America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking.

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 that 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 dies 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 **** 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.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".

Remember, November 11th is Veterans Day.

=====<

One fine man probably summarized it best...

"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 protester to burn
the
flag."

Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC

=====

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Thank you for that post.

I would recommend 'The Greatest Generation' as something to read to learn more about our parents and the world they gave to us. It's a wonderful insight into who they are and what they did for us.

 

[Mosey]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Don't all government employees get Veteran's Day off? Aside from when I was in the Navy, I've never worked for a government office and none of the employers I've worked for gave their employees Veteran's Day off, including the place I work now (Cummins Engine). I think there's something wrong with this arrangement. I think all veterans should get the day off work, regardless of who they work for. It should be a federal law. I think it's good to have the holiday and all, but how many of those government employees do anything to honor the veterans? To most of them it's just another paid holiday. I'm also insulted that the "Diversity Council" here at Cummins goes to great lengths to "celebrate diversity" and honor various minority groups throughout the year by having presentations and putting up posters all through the buildings. It's almost 2:30pm now and Cummins hasn't done anything to indicate that they are even aware that it's Veteran's Day.

 

[RobertN]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

We took the Farmall in a local Vet's parade this morning(Folsom, Ca).

It was great to see the turnout respecting our local Veterans. In other area's of Sacramento Ca there was not so good of turnout.

In fact, get this! Sacramento wouldn't allow a Vet's parade without HUGE insurance policies and security and stuff. A few local Vet's were on the news, lamenting the fact. The Vet's groups don't have the funds to do all the liability and stuff for a free parade respecting the Americans who fought for our Freedoms and rights.

Can you belive that stuff?!?! Oh, and to boot, our Governor is a Vietnam Vet, and advertised the fact heavily in this last election; you'd think he would stand up and say something!

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Danny,

I wish I'd know you were at Cummins. I had a truck down three weeks waiting for pistons for a rebuild. It seems your corporate moguls decided to divert all of them to engine production to beat the 11-1 EGR deadline rather than service those of us who already supported Cummins. I'd have called you to divert some pistons to get my driver back on the road.

Frankly, the way I feel toward Cummins right now, nothing they do would surprise me. If you have the opportunity to talk with any of the suits down there, feel free to tell them what this customer said and to pass on my email address if they'd care to contact me.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Robert,

I'm happy to say that here in the heartland I know of no municipality that failed to have a parade or something else to honor our veterans.

 

[RobertN]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Gary,
That's good to hear. I'm really proud of our Veterans! The parade we were in in Folsom was great(about 15 minutes outside of Sacramento), and I think the focus remained on the Veterans, where it should be.

I would have thought the State Capital would really do something up for the day. Gray Davis is a decorated Vietnam Veteran. I respect that greatly. But, as the Governor of a State like this, you would think he would appear in the Capital and at least say something. This is especially so, considering the way he worked his Veteran staus into his recent reelection. I have not heard a word about him on any of the local stations, or any of the tidbits we've gotten from the San Francisco bay area channels.

Oh well, my wife, son, and I paid tribute. I'm glad my 8 year old boy has an idea about what our Vet's really mean to this great country.

 

[Mosey]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Gary - Unfortunately, I wouldn't be any help in your situation. I don't know anyone in on highway truck engine area. I'm in the high horsepower area (mining haul trucks with 3500+ HP). It sure is disappointing to find out how they are handling their customers!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

In October of 68 I was going back from a stay at Camp Zama in Japan. Since I was a senior enlisted man they gave me four men to make sure they got on the plane for the trip back to "in country".

I was there because I was sitting in the back of a truck with eleven other guys when it rolled on top of us in the middle of nowhere and we were the only vehicle.

One of the guys was a very very very young eighteen year old grunt. He'd been in country for only a couple of weeks when they assigned him to guard duty on the perimeter. His very first watch Charlie over ran them. The satchel charge blew him out of the bunker. He laid there playing dead as the Viet Cong stripped him of his gear.

I'd been in the same ward with him in the hospital. I'd played pool with him in rehab. We'd talked about what it was like home.

In the airport I sat down on a bench and cried with him. You see I was going back to work. I only had three months until I was done with the army. Yeah, I was ticked that everyone else was getting out five months early and I was going back with only a hundred and nine days of my committment left. I had a critical job to do and the needs of the Army was a priority.

He was going back as a grunt. He was going back to fight and maybe die.

When you're twenty and you've spent two tours in Nam you're very old. I landed in country two weeks after my eighteenth birthday. But this kid was a kid. And I had to sit there on that bench beside him and explain that he really had no choice. He had to go. There was no other option that he could realistically live with in this lifetime.

That event has weighed heavy on me ever since. When it comes to Veterans Day I often wonder if he celebrates it or if even gets the chance. A couple of years ago I filed some search paperwork and got some copies of orders and stuff from the Department of the Army. In them was the orders sending back from Japan. There are five names in the orders, mine and four others. One of those names is on the Wall. The age is right. The MOS is correct. He died about six to eight weeks later in combat.

I don't know.

Yeah, I guess I should contact the family and find out.

But I haven't got there yet.

For me Veteran's Day is all about that. The doing your job if you were there. If you were not there then you can't be held to the standards of those that were. Nor can you expect to get the respect earned by those that did their job under the worst of circumstances.

For awhile after learning about the young man dying over there I tried to carry some of the blame. It didn't fit. I did my job. I encouraged him to do his.

But I will never forgive the politicians for putting us in that position. Him to die and me to insure him being put in harm's way.

 

[Boondox]

Re: Veteran\'s Day

Harv -- My heart really went out to you upon reading your post! My best friend died on Koh Tang in 75, and I never felt comfortable around his family again. We eventually broke off contact. Survivors' guilt, therapists called it. I haven't been to the wall. Not sure I could take it, seeing the names of my friends in granite.

Semper fi, Pete