Happy Veterans Day!!

[ralph]

On the 11th hour of the 11th day, in the 11th month, 97yrs ago WWI ended.. To all you Vets, Thank you.

[SeriousStudent]

Indeed, my deep thanks and appreciate to all those who served in our armed forces.

I would also ask that if you have a moment, please think about financially supporting organizations like Elder Heart or Mission 22, which help many of our veterans.

Thank you.

[26 Inf]

Not yet, but in couple hours. This is from Small wars Journal, if nor appropriate mods please delete. Thank you.

Veterans Day and the Burden of Vigilance

General Robert B. Neller

(Small Wars Journal 2012)

Veterans’ Day occurs on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, a date stemming from the Armistice Day of the First World War. Unfortunately, “The War to End All Wars” did not live up to its title, so we honor the veterans of many more conflicts: the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and Iraq; in addition to the many other actions of the Cold War and our new post-Cold War world. In peacetime and in war, members of the military are the sheepdogs of American society, always on the watch for predators that lurk in the night. And the burden of this vigilance is high.

One day in the fall of 2006, I met a young Marine lance corporal who shouldered that burden—the burden of the watchstander. The burden of those left behind, wondering why it was their buddy, and not they, who paid the price. I was traveling the road from Fallujah to Habbiniyah that day. Although we had three observation posts—OPs—on the road, it was still littered with IEDs. The first one was called OP Redskins, located on an overpass over a railroad track. I had visited the OP before and planned to push through it this day as we were running late. Engineers further down the road were still sweeping for IEDs, though, and we had to wait until they were complete. So, we entered the serpentine of concrete jersey barriers and made our way into the OP to wait. On our way in, I noticed a blackened hole in the road surface, surrounded by pieces of shattered concrete—a reminder of the constant threat.

Once we were inside the OP, I got out to stretch my legs and noticed that most of the Marines were sleeping, obviously having spent the previous night either on post or on patrol. Doing my best not to disturb them—and hoping that no one would start waking them up because “some General is here”—I headed to the guard tower at the west end of the OP. I could see the silhouette of a Marine standing watch so I decided to go up and say hello. I approached the ladder, sounded off, “Neller coming up” (it is not good to sneak up on a guy with a loaded weapon) and climbed up into the post. As I entered I was greeted by a Marine Lance Corporal. He was about six feet tall and lean, with a scraggly moustache. His gear was clean and neat and he was clearly wide awake.

Being wide awake as a watchstander is no small thing. First off, being on post, especially if you are doing it right, is an exercise in interminable boredom. Second, this Marine had probably been up most of the night on patrol, as he had been for nights on end. When you are in combat the first thing you notice in men is their eyes. The eyes of a combat Marine, regardless of their age, are usually somewhat recessed and dark underneath. These are the eyes of men who are tired, have seen hardship, danger, and sometimes the carnage of combat. This Marine had combat eyes.

“Who are you,” I asked.

“Lance Corporal Christ” he said.

I paused.

“No sir, I am not kidding. My name is Lance Corporal Christ. C-H-R-I-S-T.”

“What’s your first name?”

“Tyler.”

I had just met Lance Corporal Tyler Christ, USMC.

“OK, LCpl Christ. Tell me what is going on.”

He proceeded to tell me his sector of observation, the responsibilities of his post and gear he had with him. I asked him what the daily routine was in the area and he gave me his thoughts on that.

Tyler was 23 years old and had been a student at the University of Minnesota. Although there are quite a few Marines who are college graduates or have some college it is not something you run across every day. I then asked him the usual question. “Why does a guy going to the University of Minnesota join the Marines?”

His immediate response was, “I needed a challenge.”

I asked, “Did you get one?”

“Yes sir, and more.”

We talked about a few more things—family, home, the small talk of normality.

Then I asked him, “I know you guys had a Marine hurt by an IED the other night. I thought I read it was to the southwest,” and I pointed in that direction. In reality, I knew he had been killed.

“Did you see the shot hole on the side of the road when you drove up,” he said calmly. “It was there. That was my squad. Do you know what happened?”

I said, “No I don’t. Do you want to talk about it?”

He paused for a moment and I could feel the memory of the event coming back to him. Then, in a calm clear voice, he told me the story of what happened that night. He recounted the name and position of each man in his squad on the patrol. He was the last man, rear security. At the bottom of the road one of the Marines in the middle of the formation stepped on a pressure initiator, triggering an IED hidden behind a jersey barrier. The Marine was badly hurt. Christ ran up to him, applied a tourniquet, and administered immediate first aid. A medevac was called and the Marine was taken to one of our surgical units which was nearby, but it was too late. His injuries were too serious and we lost him.

Christ paused and neither of us spoke for about a minute.

“You know sometimes you can do everything right and it just doesn’t work out,” I said. “If your buddy were here he would tell you that you all did the best you could and that you needed to press on and accomplish the mission. That you and the rest of the squad need to move on as best we can and take care of today. To do otherwise would be to dishonor his memory.”

We talked about how the squad was dealing with the loss. They had taken it pretty hard, he said, but people were adjusting. We talked a bit more, but the hour was getting late and I had to go. I thanked him for his service and I told him how proud I was to be able to serve with men like him.

He thanked me and we shook hands. I climbed down the ladder, got into my truck and we drove away. He remained on post; vigilant and upright, despite the weight of the gear, the heat of the day, the boredom of watchfulness, and undoubtedly the ceaseless memories of his deceased friends. As I reflected on what had just transpired I realized I had just experienced something extraordinary. I had met a young man who had faced death and given his all to save his brother Marine. A man who mourned the loss of his friend, but still had the discipline and perseverance to get up the next day, strap on his gear and do what he had to do in a very dangerous place. To accomplish the mission. To take care of his fellow Marines.

He shouldered the burden and carried on. And he will carry that burden for the rest of his life, just as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines of every generation have done. You see, that is what makes our military and our Nation great. People talk about this generation or that, but the truth is that America has called a portion of every generation of Americans to serve. Every generation has answered that call and answered it honorably. It is not the career officers or the generals that make our military great. It is the young men and women like LCpl Christ—citizen soldiers who serve with a pureness and innocence of dedication to the mission and to each other that only the young can have—who have always carried that burden and always will.

[Jwknutson17]

Thank you to all our vets who have served in our armed forces. I can't thank all of you enough!! Thank you!

[Hank6046]

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." – Thucydides

Happy Veterans day everyone, and remember that you don't always have to thanks a veteran for their service, they also take cash. ; )

[ColtSeavers]

The one day a year I remember to ask for veteran discount... gonna be pretty pathetic when I get to senior citizen discount age and forget to ask for that discount everyday!
:jester: :(

[RazorBurn]

Thank you to all that have served and are serving.

[26 Inf]

Ending the Day With Another article taken form SWJ:

How Veterans Day Can Help Heal a Divided Nation
David Barno
November 11, 2016

Editor’s Note: This is adapted from remarks delivered by the author today at American University.

Veterans Day has a bit of a different feel this year, one perhaps reflective of bigger currents coursing across our nation. As it does every four years, this Veterans Day comes shortly after a presidential election, an opportunity to exercise the nuts and bolts of our great democracy at that most consequential level. And in the aftermath of Tuesday’s results, we might find some inspiration in Veterans Day to help us find our path forward as a nation. A bit more on that later.

Today is different from Memorial Day, when we visit Arlington Cemetery to mourn our fallen comrades. Today is about celebrating and honoring all our veterans, alive or dead, but especially those living among us every day.

What exactly defines a veteran? In this country, a veteran is anyone who has served honorably in uniform of the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, and yes, the Coast Guard too, during any period of our history. To be a veteran does not require wartime service, deployments, service-related injuries, or combat experience. Veterans may be our neighbors or our students, our groundskeepers or our professors, our elected officials or homeless itinerants, engineers or lawyers. Veterans populate the ranks of any number of the other people we pass by daily in our busy lives. These often-invisible Americans have served our country in war and peace, and most call little or no attention to themselves or their service.

To become a veteran requires a simple but profound act: taking the oath of service to the nation and donning the uniform of one of the military services. That simple action is enough, for when you raise your right hand, whether you were fully aware of it or not, you were volunteering to go into harm’s way and potentially give up your life if duty required it. We revere and honor our veterans here in the United States, perhaps more so than in any other country in the world today.

What distinguishes them, our veterans, from fellow citizens who have never worn the uniform? Is it simply three, or five, or 30 years in camouflage or khakis? Or is there something unique that U.S. military veterans represent?

I should note here that I’m not one of those who believes we veterans should be adored or put on a pedestal. I am a veteran, as are my dad, four of my uncles, and both of my sons. I get it, believe me. But I don’t subscribe to the notion that all veterans are heroes and not many vets do. But we do know what heroism looks like.

In reflecting about what makes veterans different from the rest of our society, I think I have found something. It’s a bit hard to put my finger on it. Call it a spirit or ethic that veterans take with them from their time in uniform out into their lives afterwards. There is a deep-down belief — rarely spoken — that animates them and causes them to want to continue to serve, and to keep giving back to the nation. There is an ethos that motivates them to reach out — both to fellow veterans, and to other Americans in need—with a helping hand. There is perhaps an inner compass that causes many, perhaps most veterans to always want to do a bit more than expected for their communities, for their workplaces, for the nation.

This week, as we look across the very divided landscape of America on this Veterans Day, we should all be inspired by the example of selfless service our veterans represent. Their service in uniform — whether it be in our most recent wars or the now more dimly remembered conflicts and other times of past decades — reminds us all of what it means to be an American.

Military service has always been one of the great levelers of our society. Everyone who enters the U.S. military is forcefully reminded from day one of boot camp or basic training that all the old rules of what makes each of us different or important or privileged in our civilian lives no longer apply. Wealth and position count for nothing. Degrees and honors carry no weight. Parentage, ethnic background, religion — and most certainly politics — convey no special advantage in a basic training platoon, or for that matter in an infantry company or a SEAL team. Veterans perhaps more than most Americans get the meaning of the Latin phrase inscribed on our currency: e pluribus unum, “out of many, one.” Every individual in the military is part of a bigger team tasked with accomplishing a mission. And implicit in that understanding is that some of those missions will result in death or grievous injury for members of the team.

The military, perhaps above almost any other institution in the country, is all about teamwork and blending people from every imaginable background together to accomplish truly difficult and dangerous things. There are no tribes of red or blue in the military. There are no warring factions, but rather just tightly knit groups of young Americans preparing for and waging war against real enemies. That dose of mortal reality can have a remarkably clarifying effect that instantly brushes away everything that divides us as Americans to unify members of the military as teammates who have committed to never leave a fallen comrade behind on the battlefield. That may be a dose of wisdom from our veterans that we could all benefit from this week.

In the aftermath of a world-changing election, we should all draw a bit from that lesson. Our veterans can help inspire us to see each other as members of the same team — America’s team — instead of as rival tribes incapable of seeing beyond our individual interests to the bigger collective national goals we should all share. We should once again strive to live up to our name — the United States — and help take inspiration from our veterans and their example to guide us to a better future as one nation of many outlooks – but still one nation. And I would call upon our veterans to help lead some of this reconciliation. No Americans are better placed to help us work together toward our nation’s shared goals than our veterans, and it is my hope this week that they will begin to take up that task.

For those of you who are not veterans but truly wish to honor the sacrifice and commitment of veterans today, I have a challenge for you this Veterans Day as well.

Remember, we honor our veterans not only because they wore our nation’s uniform, but because each of them made a choice to devote a part of themselves — a part of their lives — to something bigger than themselves and to repay in some fashion the great privilege we all have in living in this country.

There are many ways for each of you to accept that challenge, to give back to your country.

Serving in the military is one. Volunteering in your community is another. Reaching out individually to help a veteran is a third. And simply setting a goal for yourself, a life goal that you will not live your life in these United States and prosper from our immense blessings without thinking hard about how to do something in return for your nation. And that “something” by no means is only through serving in uniform, but it is, in all cases, about sacrificing part of your time, your energy, your skills, and talents and passion to give something to a diverse society that is bigger than yourself and much more than the sum of its parts.

That is my challenge to all of you, veterans and citizens alike. Do something to contribute to our larger community of Americans of all stripes, all colors, all politics and through this, we can — in ways both small and large — bring our people and nation closer together.



The bolded are reasons that I feel a universal service requirement is a good thing.

Thanks to those who have served, prayers for the families and comrades of those who paid the ultimate price in their service, and blessings for those who are serving now.

[docsherm]

I would like to say thank you to all that served this nation.

As one of those that have dedicated over half of my life to my nation I would like to thank all of the families of veterans, the spouses and children that support us and make us able to do the great things we do. Without them we, the war fighters, would not be able to serve as well as we have done.

God bless the military families that sacrifice more then most know.