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Veterans Day...

Dandy Dave

By Dandy Dave
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Shop Rat 25,000+ Points

Shop Rat

Posted
Posted

I would like to add my thanks to those that already posted.

My husband Bill is a former Captain with the United States Air Force - Viet Nam Era. His duties stateside helped to save the lives of American soldiers serving in Viet Nam.

My step-son Richard is currently in basic training in Fort Benning, Ga. to serve with the Idaho Army National Guard.

My nephew Kevin is currently serving in Uzbekistan with the West Virginia Air Force National Guard.

My friend Pat Thorpe (known also as ex98thdrill here) is a verteran who served in the Middle East eight years ago.

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Terry Bond 25,000+ Points

Terry Bond

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For those of you who have attended our National Meets and Tours this year, I've made it a practice to ask our veterans to stand with me at our banquets to be recognized for their contribution to our freedom. I've been impressed with the numbers and believe it is also what makes AACA so strong. The organizational skills, the flexibility, the resourcefulness, and the "can-do" spirit have been good for America and AACA. Thank you all for your service and sacrafice.

Terry Bond

USN-R

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ex98thdrill 10,000+ Points

ex98thdrill

Posted
Posted
For those of you who have attended our National Meets and Tours this year, I've made it a practice to ask our veterans to stand with me at our banquets to be recognized for their contribution to our freedom. I've been impressed with the numbers and believe it is also what makes AACA so strong. The organizational skills, the flexibility, the resourcefulness, and the "can-do" spirit have been good for America and AACA. Thank you all for your service and sacrafice.

Terry Bond

USN-R

....and let us not forget our own AACA National President who retired from the Navy.
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MrEarl 25,000+ Points

MrEarl

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Posted (edited)

A heart felt salute to all those who fought for our rights and freedom.

Lamar Brown

8th Engineers, USMC 1969-1972

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a Jagged scar, a certain look in the 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 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 Danang.

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 remains unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket, 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, Marine, Sailor ,Airman, National Guardsman and Coast Guardsman, and also 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. When you see one 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".

God Bless Our Veterans!

Edited by MrEarl
add National and Coast Guardsman (see edit history)
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Shop Rat 25,000+ Points

Shop Rat

Posted
Posted (edited)

I would like to add the members of the United States Coast Guard who many times are forgotten as the fifth military service.

Many times items to honor the branches of our military do not include them. Yet they risk their lives to protect our country from drug runners, invaders of many kinds and risk their lives to try to save the lives of those on our waters when they are in trouble.

My cousin, David B. Flanagan, graduated number one in his class that the United States Coast Guard Academy. His name is on the brass plaque there. He retired as a Captain.

Edited by Shop Rat
Correct a type-o. (see edit history)
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Guest windjamer

Guest windjamer

Posted
Posted

What a differance a day makes:) Hey they could make a song of that. Back to reallaty,my home coming was a little rough in 67, today lots of folks say welcome home, I say thank you.

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Peter J.Heizmann 10,000+ Points

Peter J.Heizmann

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The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial we vets built in Reading, PA's city park I believe says it all.

We put at least 2 years into finalizing the wording to "bring unity" to everyone's experience in dealing with war and sacrifice. The wording covers those who avoided serving, those who lost love ones, those who served, those who wanted to serve however denied for varied reasons, those who gave the ultimate:

____________________________________________________________________________

TO THOSE WHO LAUGHED

TO THOSE WHO CRIED

TO THOSE WHO FOUGHT

TO THOSE WHO TRIED

TO THOSE WHO GAVE THERE VERY LIVES

"WE REMEMBER"

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MrEarl 25,000+ Points

MrEarl

Posted
Posted (edited)

The following reply to Susan and Dick has been deleted twice thus far without any warning or explanation from anyone. Perhaps it was seen as bad taste that I made the sarcastic remark, but is that reason to delete it without so much as an explanation. If anyone considers it bad taste, then it is a reflection on me so why should a moderator feel it is a threat to the entire forum membership. And please don't give me any namby pamby about it being political rhetoric and that that is not allowed on this forum. It was conversation. There's nothing political about it. It's fact. We were called such when we returned and Jane Fonda promoted it. It has taken a generation for that to be forgotten but some of us can't or do not wish to forget. I have been a devoted contributing member of this forum for almost ten years and I have many friends here. However I feel strongly that not only I, but several of us have been denied our rightful freedom of speech on this forum over the years. For that cause, and I say this with deliberate sincerity, if this post or at minimum my original reply is not allowed to remain, I will no longer be a contributing member to this forum. And that will hurt me to no end.

Here is my original reply. Two little sentences that could have just been left alone and by tomorrow forgotten. Now sadly they may be my final words here.

> So noted and so edited Susan.:) (referring to your post above re adding the Coast Guard)

Dick, I think I know where you're coming from, my fellow baby killer?:(:)

Do you share the same love and affection for Jane Fonda as I? <

Edited by MrEarl (see edit history)
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Shop Rat 25,000+ Points

Shop Rat

Posted
Posted

Thank you Mr. Earl for adding the National Guardsmen and the Coast Guardsmen (and it is understood that those terms also include the women who serve/have served). :)

And we honor the families that those military members belong/belonged to. Their sacrifices should not be forgotten either. It might be that they get by day to day without their loved one as that person fulfills their duties to their country. Or they might forever grieve as their loved one paid the ultimate price for our rights and freedoms.

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Terry Bond 25,000+ Points

Terry Bond

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Posted

Thank you also for reminding us to include the Natl Guard and Coast Guard. My son is a Coast Guard career man and has seen a lot of action as a disaster response coordinator. He has been in the middle of 9-11, Katrina, Columbia, Anthrax, and now the gulf oil disaster. I'd say he's seen plenty of trouble. My proudest moment was when he asked me to wear my uniform at his graduation. I can't wait to pin a pair of my chief's anchors on him!

Terry

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Steve_Mack_CT 25,000+ Points

Steve_Mack_CT

Posted
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A sincere, deep THANK YOU to anyone who has served in any part of our armed forces, during wartime, peacetime, whatever - there are always sacrifices made and YOU are what has made it possible for the rest of us to enjoy a free and rather comfortable lifestyle compared to so many parts of the world!!

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Lebowski 5,000+ Points

Lebowski

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Posted

I spent two years in the Army in the early 70s but didn't go to Nam since it was winding down then. However I would like everyone to keep PFC Phillip Weddington in their thoughts and prayers today. He died in Vietnam a month before his 20th birthday. His grave is right next to those of my wife's parents in Louisville. Whenever we go to the cemetery to place flowers on their graves I always take one and place it on his grave. Thanks for your service to our country, Phillip, and may you rest in peace. You are a true hero in my eyes....

post-59416-14313872772_thumb.jpg

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stock_steve 5,000+ Points

stock_steve

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Posted

Found this succinct definition online, reportedly attributed to the US Department of Veterans' Affiairs--seems to really encapsulate the meaning of the day nicely:

“Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good”

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Marty Roth 25,000+ Points

Marty Roth

Posted
Posted

"THANK YOU" to ALL Veterans,

especially to my late father who served with the 6th Special Battallion, SeaBees, USN, from the establishment of the SeaBees (Consruction Battallions) through the duration of the War in the Pacific (WWII).

Thank you, also to Lamar, whose opinions are valued and respected.

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